Murder by the Book (G K Hall Large Print Book Series) [Hardcover]

Rex Stout (Author)

Product Details

• Hardcover: 291 pages
• Publisher: G K Hall & Co; Largeprint edition (1996)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0783815689
• ISBN-13: 978-0783815688
• Product Dimensions: 9.4 x 6.3 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (16 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,640,838 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

17 of 17 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Very Good, But It Has a Flaw, November 6, 2003

By 

James A. White (Cookeville, TN United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Murder by the Book (Paperback)

This mystery is wonderful, whether you are a new Stout fan or an old afficionado. Since the other reviewers have discussed the plot, I won't delve into it much. Basically, a man, Leonard Dykes, has written a story and everyone who reads it (he, the woman at the publishing house, and the typist) is killed. The father of the woman from the publishing house, Joan Wellman, hires Wolfe because he is not satisfied with the police's efforts. The rest of the story is fairly formulaic for the Stout series: Wolfe is arrogant, sticks to his schedule, and never leaves the Brownstone. Archie is sarcastic, lures the women, and is a 1940s man-about-town.

There are two differnt things about this story: one good, one bad. First, the bad: Stout doesn't explain the alibi of the murderer. The killer says there is one, and Wolfe starts to dispute it, but Cramer stops him. Therefore, we never find out how the killer contrived the alibi. This may not bother some, but for me, it's frustrating. As for the good, Archie's (perhaps) ultimate love interest is found in this book, in the form of a plump, older, married woman. Don't worry: Archie does nothing wrong, but he sure does think about it...

Bottom line: Well up to Stout's usual standards, with extra interest. The flaw, though, keeps it from being five stars.

13 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Murder by the Book, November 25, 2003

By 

Horselover_Fat (Atlanta, GA USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Murder by the Book (Paperback)

Written with such a mastery over words and phrases, that it's really hard not to like it. I've read almost every Nero Wolfe novel and while this one is not my absolute favorite, it has several scenarios that I find among the most memorable. The first being the 'scam' that Wolfe and Goodwin contrive to attempt to lure the murderer to the sister of one of the people who've read the book - this is expertly handled and quite thorough. The second is (I'm obviously not going in order :P) the 'group interrogation' with the dozen or so secretaries. But there's alot of little nuances throughout the novel that are professional touches that make it seem almost as if the characters are real and that you're reading a piece of history. Stout's almost tedious attention to detail is more fuller appreciated the more you read it, or better yet listen to the audiobook (read by Michael Prichard).

11 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars a client for the victims, not the accused, March 17, 2002

By 

Michele L. Worley (Kingdom of the Mouse, United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Murder by the Book (Audio Editions Mystery Masters) (Audio Cassette)

(If you're interested in an audio edition, Michael Pritchard's unabridged narration is pretty good.)

We begin with the murder of a man who had no life: Leonard Dykes, fished out of the river on New Year's Day, a confidential clerk in the law firm of Corrigan, Phelps, Custen, and Briggs. No family (other than a married sister in California), no lovers, no unsavoury habits, no money problems (neither debts nor a large net worth), no problems with his job. Somebody somewhere, though, hit him on the head before leaving him to drown, and ransacked Dykes' apartment, but the only thing the Manhattan homicide squad could find was a single sheet of paper in a book, with a list of men's names, none of whom could be found in New York City.

Stuck, Cramer pays a call at the brownstone, but Wolfe can only suggest that Dykes or someone he knew had tried to come up with an alias for someone, but never used it. Cramer, frustrated (and embarrassed at having sunk so low as to ask for help without getting anywhere), leaves it at that.

Six weeks later, John R. Wellman hires Wolfe to find the man who killed his daughter Joan; he's not satisfied with the Bronx's handling of the case. From a letter, he knows that after Joan rejected a manuscript - "Put Not Your Trust", by Baird Archer - for her publishing firm, Archer had made an appointment to see her privately and get feedback on how to improve it, and the appointment coincided with her death. But nobody can find either the man or the manuscript. Wolfe has no information that the police don't have - collectively, between Manhattan and the Bronx - but he remembers that "Baird Archer" was one of the names on Dykes' list. So begins the hunt for "Put Not Your Trust", beginning with a search of all the typing services in the city - and soon another murder is added to the tally, that of typist Rachel Abrahms, only minutes before Archie could speak to her.

Stout has given us a real story here - where the lives of the survivors have been torn up with the loss of their daughters, with a man who's going against the advice of his pastor and his wife in hiring Wolfe. Not that it's a tale *only* of human suffering; Archie's telling it, after all. As balance, Wellman's a bit disturbed by Wolfe's tactics at times, particularly when Wolfe decides to have Archie go to work on extracting information from the female clerical staff of Dykes' law firm. Fritz nobly offers to help with the ladies, since there are so many. :)