Not Quite Dead Enough [Paperback]

Rex Stout (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 1992

involving national security, Nero Wolfe must set the traps that will catch the pair of wily killers responsible. Reissue. NYT.

--This text refers to the Mass Market Paperback edition.

Product Details

• Paperback
• Publisher: Bantam Books (October 1992)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0553225898
• ISBN-13: 978-0553225891
• Product Dimensions: 6.6 x 4 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.6 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 3.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (13 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #628,782 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

17 of 19 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars In the Army now, November 25, 2002

By 

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

This review is from: Not Quite Dead Enough (Nero Wolfe Mysteries) (Mass Market Paperback)

Both stories herein were written and set within the early years of the United States' participation in WWII; see TROUBLE IN TRIPLICATE for later stories. Saul, Fred, and Orrie were overseas and out of the stories for the duration of the war. Archie joined up, but was assigned to Army Intelligence on the home front for the duration. (He tried more than once to get a combat assignment and got nowhere - as it is, he's paid about 1/3 his old salary, has the disadvantages of being in the Army, and Wolfe uses his Army loyalties as an excuse to withhold even more information than usual.)

As for Wolfe, Fritz, and Theodore...

"Not Quite Dead Enough" - March 1942. Archie's now Major Goodwin - very good, since he's been in the Army for only 2 months, and the idea of Army discipline...well, Archie refers to snapping to one's feet and so forth in the presence of a general as 'Rocketteing'. After clearing up 'that mess down in Georgia' (an unrecorded case of his own for Army Intelligence), his superior calls him in to ask why Wolfe hasn't cooperated when asked to work for Army Intelligence. Archie confidently assumes that the Army just mishandled Wolfe, and that he's sunk deep in his normal rut.

When he gets home and finds the office dusty, he's sure Fritz or Wolfe must be dead - it's just a question of which; on finding dust in the *kitchen* is dusty and health food in the refrigerator (!), he's sure they're *both* dead. But Theodore says no, they're in training to join the Army. Archie, after attempting to make Wolfe see reason, starts scuffling around for a case to jump-start Wolfe's brain - and when he finds one, deliberately sinks *himself* in it up to the neck.

Lily Rowan has a major role; she's much more visibly attached to Archie than in later books. (To fully appreciate all the by-play with Lily, read SOME BURIED CAESAR.) She's been trying to get Wolfe to take on a job for a friend, but he wouldn't see her. Archie takes an interest, but the friend is a good-looking young woman, so Lily isn't quite so keen on Archie getting involved. (The friend lives in an apartment building full of eccentrics - old ladies who feud because one feeds squirrels and the other fancies pigeons; a 4F young man who raises racing pigeons...)

"Booby Trap" - August 1943. Captain Albert Cross was found dead on the pavement beneath his hotel room window - an obvious murder: he was due to make a report to the group of intelligence people Wolfe works with. (Of the local group, only General Fife is regular Army - Colonel Ryder was a Cleveland lawyer, Tinkham a bank security officer - and he has no inclination to sooth feathers ruffled by Wolfe's manner. Fife, in turn, reports to General Carpenter.)

Cramer hates the national security crud involved - a reaction consistent with his occasional clashes with the FBI in later years - and with good reason: the Army can't give the police all the facts. Intelligence has been made aware of an anonymous letter alleging that various unpatented, uncopyrighted trade secrets / industrial processes have been made available to the government to support the war, and that somebody's selling them to unscrupulous companies seeking post-war advantage. (Nondisclosure agreements, and lack thereof, are not a new problem under the sun.) It's hard to prove, since the profit motive can't be established until it's too late.

Cross had been investigating the theft of some samples of a new type of grenade. Archie and Wolfe, after using Cross' notes to recover the grenades, are working on who killed Cross and why. Wolfe won't let Archie keep one grenade as a trophy - and after Archie returns it, someone employs it to set a booby trap for another member of the group. Wolfe himself lays a trap to catch Ryder's murderer.

Most of the intelligence characters were mentioned in the preceding story but did not appear. Shattuck, a Congressional committee chairman, is in on this because when he received an anonymous letter, he brought it to his old friend Colonel Ryder rather than the FBI. (Shattuck was godfather to Ryder's only son, who was killed in action a few weeks before the story opens.) After a pointed remark from one of the G2 types asking where's the media, Shattuck just as pointedly says it would be good if Capitol Hill took over the armed forces for a month - "Good God!" - and vice versa, since everybody would learn something.

Wolfe's patriotism, as usual, is understated but apparent. There's no black market stuff at the brownstone (at least, not until after the war is over, in a story in another collection). He's willing to travel, and even miss orchid sessions if necessary, for the sake of his adopted country. Lastly, during the war, Wolfe takes only Army Intelligence work, not the high-paying private stuff.

Both stories, of course, are period pieces, reflecting in various small details that they're contemporary with the setting. We don't just see references to rationing and the black market, but little things: Archie making a crack about politicians trying to imitate Churchill's voice after his address to Congress; General Fife trying to imitate Eisenhower's mannerisms; Wolfe's reaction to meeting a WAC.

19 of 23 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Not Quite Stout's Best..., May 26, 2003

By 

A. Wolverton (Crofton, MD United States) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Not Quite Dead Enough (Nero Wolfe Mysteries) (Mass Market Paperback)

But not bad, either. This Nero Wolfe offering consists of two stories. The first story, Not Quite Dead Enough, finds Archie in the Army while Wolfe and Fritz train for active duty. (Really! No kidding!) While on furlough, Archie is suspected of murdering a young lady he had been out with for the evening. The second story is far superior to the first. Booby Trap, while keeping the trappings of a military atmosphere (an Army colonel is murdered), provides a satisfactory outlet for Wolfes genius.

You must understand that these stories appeared first in 1944. Stout was obviously painting Wolfe and Archie as patriotic crime fighters, which is admirable, but yields ridiculous results in the first story. The second tale is vintage Wolfe, containing everything Wolfe fans have come to expect (beer, orchids, colorful exchanges between Wolfe and Archie) and love (a woman in the brownstone, Wolfe leaving the house, Wolfe riding in a car, Wolfe attempting to sit in an unsatisfactorily built chair). If youre a die-hard fan, youll want to read the first story, but youll savor the second. If youre a newcomer, skip the first tale and watch Wolfe in top form in Booby Trap.

208 pages

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars One of the Weakest Nero Wolf Books, November 19, 2007

By 

Leo J. Moser - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Not Quite Dead Enough (Nero Wolfe Mysteries) (Mass Market Paperback)

It is difficult for me to rate any Nero Wolf story less than excelent, but this one must be so rated. It seems to vary sharply from others in the series. This is especially true of the first story "Not Quite Dead Enough." Wolf seems close to delusional. Lily Rowan is not the same cool Lily, but some sort of frantic man-chasing vamp.

This book was probably quickly written by Stout who was busy at the time in promoting the war effort.