Wednesday, January 03, 2007
The Father Hunt
by Rex Stout
Ooh, this library book has a picture of the author on the back sleeve. What a funny looking guy. I mean that in a good way. Rex Stout appears both good natured and cunning, cunning enough to be writing good detective novels.
This latest Rex Stout This book was published in the mid-late 60s. I marvel at how our trusty protagonists Archie Goodwin and Nero Wolfe age not at all despite the nearly 30 years that have passed since the first Nero Wolfe novel was written. As I read The Father Hunt I remember rereading one passage in which Archie and his buddies (forgive me, I've lost thir names, although they are right there on the tip of my tongue) make some mad dash on an errand. I could have sworn that in this passage there was some reference to Archie's youthful vigor. There wasn't: Mr Stout is too vigorous a writer to make such a patently silly, and contradictory, admission.
All ends well in the end. Our father is found, and the murderer is as well. To be honest the plot in this book is a bit of a yawner. Its pretty straightforward who the big guilty parties are to be as the story progresses. No sudden twists. As any regular Nero Wolfe reader will tell you though, one doesn't read this series to fill up an apetite for mystery, murder, or action. No, its all about the regular cast. They are so charming.
Me and AL went down to Myrtle Beach for New Years, and I got to check out the library collection at the Meher Baba Center a little bit. They have an amazingly large collection of Rex Stout. I counted it up. Something like 55 titles. Simply amazing. I'm not sure what they're checkout policy is; I should look into it the next time I'm in South Carolina.
Ooh, this library book has a picture of the author on the back sleeve. What a funny looking guy. I mean that in a good way. Rex Stout appears both good natured and cunning, cunning enough to be writing good detective novels.
This latest Rex Stout This book was published in the mid-late 60s. I marvel at how our trusty protagonists Archie Goodwin and Nero Wolfe age not at all despite the nearly 30 years that have passed since the first Nero Wolfe novel was written. As I read The Father Hunt I remember rereading one passage in which Archie and his buddies (forgive me, I've lost thir names, although they are right there on the tip of my tongue) make some mad dash on an errand. I could have sworn that in this passage there was some reference to Archie's youthful vigor. There wasn't: Mr Stout is too vigorous a writer to make such a patently silly, and contradictory, admission.
All ends well in the end. Our father is found, and the murderer is as well. To be honest the plot in this book is a bit of a yawner. Its pretty straightforward who the big guilty parties are to be as the story progresses. No sudden twists. As any regular Nero Wolfe reader will tell you though, one doesn't read this series to fill up an apetite for mystery, murder, or action. No, its all about the regular cast. They are so charming.
Me and AL went down to Myrtle Beach for New Years, and I got to check out the library collection at the Meher Baba Center a little bit. They have an amazingly large collection of Rex Stout. I counted it up. Something like 55 titles. Simply amazing. I'm not sure what they're checkout policy is; I should look into it the next time I'm in South Carolina.
Labels: fiction
# posted by Unknown @ 12:46 PM 
