One Bear's Opinion -- Book Review

Roll: 7
Monopoly Property: Pennsylvania Railroad
Book: Fer-de-Lance
Author: Rex Stout

Fer-de-Lance is the first in the Rex Stout’s Nero Wolfe series. Nero Wolfe has long been a favorite of my housemate’s mother, and we have wanted to read the series since we read Murder by the Book a couple of years ago. But that was not why we chose to read this book right now. Naturally, we prefer to read a series in order, and starting with the first one is the best way to do that, but we chose this book because it’s primarily set in New York, both New York City and further out in the country in places like White Plains. The task for Pennsylvania Railroad was to read a book set in a place you’d like to visit. And I’d like to visit New York, especially if I could have a meal at Rusterman’s, one of the few places Nero Wolfe goes on the rare occasions when he leaves his house.

Fer-de-Lance is not one of the Nero Wolfe mysteries I had heard in the car as a book-on-tape on long family drives, or one of the books that was turned into an episode of A Nero Wolfe Mystery in the most recent incarnation of the series in tv. So I knew nothing about the book other than it was the first-in-series and set up the series. I am glad I didn’t know anything about book before I read it. It was fun to discover the characters on my own.

Many other reviewers have noted that the Nero Wolfe books are more about the interaction between the characters, mostly Archie and Nero, than the about the mystery or the plot. And that is true. The books are at their heart a story of two men. Over the course of the 47-book series, the characters do not age and the settings only change with the times as a reaction to the author moving along in time. The Archie of the last book is exactly the same as the Archie of the first book. It is explained that Nero Wolfe has a set schedule in the first book, and in the last, he is still as rigid in that schedule as he ever was. The series is timeless, and the consistency of the characters makes it so.

The mystery of Fer-de-Lance is interesting because it is a rather unusual method of murder. And yes, the title snake does make an appearance in the book. It’s an ingenious use of the reptile.

Over all the book was a fun introduction to the characters and knowing that there are 46 more adventures (well, 44, since we have already read two books of the series) to be had with Archie and Nero makes it more fun to meet them now. I highly recommend everyone make an acquaintance with Archie and Nero. They are good friends, made even more so by the number of adventures to be had with them, and the consistency of their characters across those adventures.

One Bear’s Opinion: Five glasses of milk with a plate of yummy cookies

Happy Reading Everyone,
Oliver