Customer Reviews

Not Quite Dead Enough

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4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(4)
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1 star:		(2)

 

 

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.

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

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.

1944 New York, the world is right in the middle of World War II, and Archie has done his patriotic duty an enlisted in the army, who dicovers they need Archie to in turn enlist Nero Wolfe's unique talents to solve a sinister mystery as a matter of national security.

"Not Quite Dead Enough" is the worst of Stout's Nero Wolfe stories. To quote Wolfe himself, (minor spoiler) the solution was "the silliest idea in the history of crime," and the actions of a couple of other major characters are almost as preposterous.

This book, like the previous one (Black Orchids) is really two novellas which came out in the same book. Both were written during World War II and both are set during that same period, with Archie Goodwin in the Army as a Major, and Wolfe eating health food and doing exercises in order to get fit to join the Army. The usual humor is there, particularly in Archie's observations about the state of the brownstone in his absence. But the plots are neither as clever nor as convincing as those in the novels, and in many ways this book is an aberration from the other Wolfe novels. The military people seemed like props: not convincing. But if you enjoy the Nero Wolfe books, it's worth reading this one just so you don't miss any part of the oeuvre.

That's all I ask of a used paperback, excellent condition. I love all of Rex Stout's Nero Wolfe series.

"Not Quite Dead Enough" by Rex Stout is one the best in the Nero Wolfe/Archie Goodwin canon. Here we have a patriotic Nero Wolfe going all out to help the Nation during World War II, with Archie serving as a Major in the US Army. The plot is a great whodunnit, which requires Wolfe to leave his brownstone mansion, unheard-of behavior for the great detective, to solve this mystery. For those who relish any good detective mystery this will be gourmet reading and, for those that already know Wolfe and Archie, it will be another wonderful reunion.

J. Raymond Watson, Puerto Rico

Everything was different during World War II. Wolfe decided that he would trim down and shoot some Germans, but instead ended up working for General Carpenter and Military Intelligence.

Thus we have these stories. Many reviewers pan them; I actually think they add a lof of depth and character to the series as a whole.

I suppose the notion of a pink hand grenade (Booby Trap) sets a few people's teeth on edge. Well, if you want something top secret, it might as well be nonconventional, no?

These are good stories, well, written, and worth your attention. Michael Prichard does his usual great job in reading them, too.

My father got me hooked on these books. They are extremely well written and just fun to read. Anyone who just wants a good mystery without all the sex and swearing will love these books.