#fer-de-lance

[alphamecha-mkii]

[radarsteddybear]

Points of interest (or at least I found them interesting) from Fer-de-Lance (Bantam edition, if you're interested in looking up the page numbers):

Fritz calls the office “the library” (page 1).

Fritz drives the roadster to go out and buy beer for Wolfe, who, now that Prohibition has ended, is switching from barrels of bootleg beer (six quarts a day) to bottled beer (five quarts a day...or so he keeps promising) if he can find a brand he likes (page 1, 3).

Many characters are introduced and primarily referred to by their last names, such as Fred Durkin (page 3) and Theodore Horstmann, who doesn’t get his first name until page 83 (Fritz is an exception; he receives his last name at the same time Theodore gets his first).

Wolfe has been hit by the Depression, having to cut Archie’s weekly pay as well as that of Saul (who apparently receives a regular paycheck from Wolfe (a retainer?) regardless of whether his services are required) (page 4).

Fred also previously received a weekly paycheck from Wolfe, but Wolfe can no longer afford to do so due to the Depression and so Fred only gets paid when his services are required (page 4).

Wolfe has lived at the brownstone for twenty years and Archie a third of that (page 16); Archie later specifies that he’s been living there for seven years (page 25) (by The Rubber Band, the number is updated to eight years (page 21)).

The only girl Archie has ever considered marrying chose another man, and this story is somehow connected to how he met Nero Wolfe (page 25).

Archie's bedroom consists of a bed ("big and good"), a desk ("with plenty of drawer-space"), and three chairs ("all roomy and comfortable"), and no rugs (by a later book, though, he does acquire a rug or two). He specifies that the pictures on the wall are all his (which is interesting because in later books he takes every opportunity to state that all the furniture in his room is his rather than Wolfe's) and include one of Mount Vernon, one of a lion's head, one of "woods with grass and flowers," a big photograph of his (deceased since he was a child) parents, and one in the bathroom called September Morn of a naked young woman with "her hair hanging down in front," which is interesting because whenever I google it, I get a painting of a naked woman with her hair up, but maybe I'm finding the wrong picture (page 25-26).

Fritz is the one in charge of answering the door (page 29); in later books, that always seems to be Archie’s job unless he's otherwise engaged.

“Wolfe’s voice was clear and low, with a tone he didn’t use very often; he had used it on me only once, the first time I had ever seen him, and I had never forgotten how it sounded; it had made me feel that if he had wanted to he could have cut my head off without lifting a hand” (page 30).

Archie drinks plenty of milk throughout the book, but he keeps a bottle of rye in his room and drinks plenty of that when he’s in a bad humor, such as when Wolfe begins his “relapse” (see below).

The phone number of the brownstone is Bryant 92828 (page 45)

Wolfe never misses the radio program “Joy Boys,” which Archie does his best to miss unless it happens to coincide with dinner because Wolfe will indeed listen to it at the dinner table (page 52).

DA Anderson does not remember Archie from whatever previous dealing they had (five years prior), which I personally find hard to believe (page 61, 64).

When Archie goes in to talk to Wolfe during breakfast, he describes the black silk making up the covers and the retractable canopy over the bed rather than the yellow silk of Wolfe’s pajamas as he does in later books (page 62).

Wolfe is “elegant” with women, but Archie states that he cannot explain what that means (page 69).

Wolfe suffers what Archie calls “relapses” where he seems to lose all interest in the case and either takes to his bed, subsisting only on onion soup and bread, or he parks it in the kitchen and spends days on end instructing Fritz on how to cook various dishes so he can then eat them (page 75-76).  During these relapses, Wolfe doesn’t even go to the plant-rooms (page 77). These relapses disappear completely in later books.

Archie claims to have only quit Wolfe once, when he sent him to get some ingredient from a ship during one of these relapses and was beaten by the crew for his trouble; he was so surprised when Wolfe came personally to pick him up from the hospital the next day that he forgot he’d quit (page 76). In later books, Archie and Wolfe frequently take turns terminating Archie's employment, though neither really truly means it.

Archie: “I would have got drunk that evening if it hadn't been Sunday” (page 80).

“And how” is the only slang Fritz uses (page 82).

Wolfe owns a house in Egypt that he has never seen, given to him a little more than 10 years prior (page 84). This is mentioned again in The Red Box, In the Best Families, and I'm sure others.

Wolfe: “Mr. Goodwin is a man of discretion, common decency, and immeasurable valor” (page 96).

In chapter 9, Archie records all of his questioning in his notebook; in later books, the notebook plays a much smaller part, as Archie is able to rely on his memory alone to be able to recite conversations back to Wolfe verbatim.

“Wolfe always thought he had a handkerchief in the breast pocket of his coat but rarely did, so I went to a drawer where I kept a stack for him and got one out and handed it to him" (page 162).

Re: Wolfe's refusal to leave his house: "But Wolfe had once found out that I had told a man he was infirm, and I didn't want that to happen again" (page 183).

"He had only one drawer in his desk, a wide shallow one in the middle, and since he had begun having his beer in bottles instead of brought up from the basement in a pitcher, he had formed the habit, every time he opened a bottle, of pulling the drawer out and dropping the bottle cap in there" (page 185).

Archie has his own shorthand (which he can covertly use while puttering around his desk looking like he's not), but again, relying on written notes rather than memory (page 186).

Nero Wolfe on religion: “I refrain from contributing to certain Christian causes because I think that no man should be saved by coercion” (page 189).

Wolfe’s mother lives in Budapest and receives remittance from Wolfe monthly (page 191).

Archie wears a panama hat (throughout).

Archie keeps referencing Saul Panzer's catchphrase, "lovin' babe!" (expanded to, "lovin' babe, what a feed!" on page 208). I think mentions of this catchphrase appear more than Saul himself does and is never mentioned again after this book.

Wolfe's handwriting is described as "fine" and "slender" (page 208).

Purley Stebbins makes his first (and only) appearance on page 209. In exchange for a drink, Stebbins accompanies Archie to the Times office for some info.

"There were times when Wolfe's awful self-assurance gave me a touch of a dash of a suggestion of a pain in the neck, but there were other times when it was as good as a flock of pure and beautiful maidens smoothing my brow" (page 227).

At one point, Archie is so pleased with the way things are developing that he finds himself singing in the roadster on the way back to the brownstone (page 232).

Re: Orrie Cather: "We hadn't been together on anything for over two years, and it seemed like old times to see him again twisting his thin lips and looking around for a place to squirt his tobacco juice" (page 244).

"...I didn't mind because it gave me a chance to doll up in the dressing gown Wolfe had given me a couple of years before which I hadn't had on more than about once" (250). This dressing gown shows back up in The Rubber Band (page 109).

Nero Wolfe can't whistle: "Wolfe was whistling; that is, his lips were rounded into the proper position and air was going in and out, but there was no sound. I loved seeing him do that; it never happened when anybody was there but me, not even Fritz. He told me once that it meant he was surrendering to his emotions" (page 266).

"Fritz came from the part of Switzerland where they talk French. He had a paper of his own every morning, but it was in French and it never seemed very likely to me that there was much in it" (page 272).

Wolfe wears two canary yellow shirts a day (page 273).

Wolfe winks at Archie on page 273; I've gotta say, there is a lot of winking in these early books. From Wolfe, Inspector Cramer, Saul Panzer...everybody's always winking at Archie.

Something that I find really interesting in general about Fer-de-Lance is the way that the cast of characters is so complete from the get-go (with the notable exception of Inspector Cramer, though he shows up in the next book). These characters might not have yet taken the shape that they later will, but they're all there, which is pretty impressive, especially given how brief some of these appearances are. Saul, Fred, Orrie, and Bill Gore all play small parts, Theodore Horstmann is there, even Purley Stebbins makes a (brief) appearance (though I can't say I could easily imagine him willingly taking Archie to a newspaper office so that he can ask some questions).

As a side note, I would love to read an annotated version of this book. I don't usually have issues with slang and other period-specific references in these old books, but this one has quite a few that remain out of my grasp (such as Saul's "lovin' babe!"). This issue disappears entirely from The League of Frightened Men on.

[lesserjoke]

Book #28 of 2026:

Fer-de-Lance by Rex Stout (Nero Wolfe #1)

This 1934 novel introduces the character of Nero Wolfe, as well as his assistant Archie Goodwin and a few other members of their inner circle. The former is a genius consulting detective in the style of Hercule Poirot (who had debuted in 1920) or especially Sherlock Holmes (1887), sharing with each of those predecessors not only a profession but also the presence of an outside narrator there to marvel at his brilliance. The key difference between a Hastings or a Watson and our protagonist in this series is that he’s additionally his employer’s main means of interacting with the world, the investigator himself being an agoraphobe who rarely leaves his luxurious New York City brownstone.

Wolfe is, hands down, the most interesting thing about this story. He represents a more nuanced depiction of neurodivergence than I was honestly expecting for the era, displaying eccentricities like an insistence on a familiar daily schedule that read as classic behaviors for someone on the autism spectrum. He also suffers from bouts of depression during which he has to set all work aside, and yet none of these qualities are viewed negatively by the cast around him, merely as elements that must be factored into their business arrangements. The narrative does occasionally stray into judgmental territory over his weight, but it’s generally a pretty refreshing tale for a book soon approaching a century in age.

I am less sold on this initial mystery, which involves a convoluted plot around a poison dart concealed in a golf club and some accordingly silly levels of insight from the wealthy recluse, not to mention an overly-long endgame after he’s correctly identified the culprit. Odd too is just how cavalier he is about his riches, at one point wagering $10,000 — almost $250,000 in today’s dollars — that an exhumed body will show the cause of death he’s deduced, in order to pressure the local authorities into digging up the corpse to conduct a new autopsy. But the overall concept and the droll humor has solid enough potential for me to check out the next few sequels, at least.

[Content warning for gun violence, suicide, and gore.]

★★★☆☆

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[haveyoureadthisbook-poll]

Have you read Fer-de-Lance by Rex Stout (1934)?

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no

I didn't finish it

I've never heard of it

Voting ended onFeb 18, 2024

[scuffedgrannysblog]

Fer-de-Lance by Rex Stout (The First Nero Wolfe Mystery)

If you like murder mysteries that are well-plotted, revealed by degrees and involve eccentric and lively characters, Nero Wolfe is for you!

This was my introduction to a new author and new detective, courtesy of my good friend on Vocal, John Cox, who recommended Stout’s books. He was right to as well, as I thoroughly enjoyed it. I do love a good detective murder mystery and this was particularly quirky, mainly because of the character of Nero Wolfe but also because of the narration of Archie Goodwin, who is our guide through this…

Fer-de-Lance by Rex Stout (The First Nero Wolfe Mystery)

[sitting-on-me-bum]

Fer-de-lance

Fer-de-lances are pit vipers from Central and South America.

(Image credit: Paul Franklin

[imjustheretoseetheprivateblogs]

"I understand the technique of eccentricity; it would be futile for a man to labor at establishing a reputation for oddity if he were ready at the slightest provocation to revert to normal action."

-Nero Wolfe in Fer-de-Lance by Rex Stout

[darchildre]

I've reached the point in my journey through All the Agatha Christie Audiobooks where I need a break, so I'm listening to the first Nero Wolfe novel instead - I've read it before, but it's been a while.

I had forgotten exactly how much of Archie's narration is "Let me minutely describe Wolfe's physical appearance and presence and the way he moves. No really, it's necessary for the story that I talk extensively about his body all the time. And also his microexpressions, which I am constantly extremely tuned into. Yes, especially the movement of his lips. That's very important. No one else notices that like I do, because I know him better than anyone and I spend a lot of time staring at him, which is incredibly normal. I'm going to be really sarcastic about all of this so that I can pretend it's not important to me. (It's very important to me.) Anyway, gotta go, he's instructed me to do something so it's time to show off so he can tell me I did a good job."

ARCHIE. It is chapter one. Oh my god, rein it in a little.