Rex Stout

A case of multiple murder sends super sleuth Nero Wolfe and his quick-witted legman Archie Goodwin on a desperate hunt for clues, but they soon discover that they may be getting too close to a killer when someone sends them a fer-de-lance, one of the world's most poisonous snakes, as a deadly "gift."

Fer-de-lance

As any herpetologist will tell you, the fer-de-lance is among the most dreaded snakes known to man. When someone makes a present of one to Nero Wolfe, Archie Goodwin knows he's getting dreadully close to solving the devilishly clever murders of an immigrant and a college president. As for Wolfe, he's playing snake charmer in a case with more twists than an anaconda -- whistling a seductive tune he hopes will catch a killer who's still got poison in his heart.

Fer-de-Lance

Colleen

3 Stars
 
Fer-de-Lance caught my eye because of the description of being a herpetological mystery. It turns out that was a bit misleading. The case does have to do with the Fer-de-Lance (the common name for snakes in the viper family although this story seems to focus on the Bothrops asper). But the story is more about the characters than the mystery.
 
This is the first installment of the Nero Wolfe mystery series, a long running detective series that has since fallen out of the public eye. It is clearly an American version of Sherlock Holmes. Fer-de-Lance follows the same formula of focusing on a genius detective whose deductive reasoning skills are so honed that everyone else looks stupid. The story is told in first person by his assistant, Archie Goodwin. Like Sherlock, Nero Wolfe lacks people skills and steamrolls over other people with his opinions. The biggest difference is that Nero Wolfe is a morbidly obese, obsessive-compulsive agoraphobic. Since he won’t leave his house, he sends Archie to investigate everything or to badger everyone to going to Nero’s house. This added some redundancy to the story. Either you heard things twice from Archie or you only read about them after the fact as Archie reported them to Nero. It really drained the action out of the story.
 
Unlike Sherlock, I never found anything endearing about Nero to offset what a total jerk he was. In fact, none of the characters appealed to me. Nero was a dick. Archie was a wannabe sidekick. And no one else had much of a personality beyond whatever small cookie cutter roles they were assigned. The female characters were marginalized and weak. The story definitely has dated public opinions and quite a bit of racism. For example, Archie says multiple times that he doesn’t trust one of the other characters simply because he “looks foreign.” It’s true that when this was published in 1934 there was plenty of xenophobia and no political correctness to suppress it. But it was unpleasant to read.
 
An interesting aspect to the story was the look at the time period both good and bad. Written and set in 1933/1934, the story carries threads of the after-effects of WWI as well as the Great Depression and most noticeably the (at the time) very recent end of Prohibition. It’s good to read books set in their own time because it provides a window to the past even if the view was not all pleasant.
 
As far as the plot goes, the mystery was not much fun. Nero, of course, makes his giant leap of logic to guess all the details of what happened. Most of the story is about finding the evidence to back up his assumptions. There was a lot of filler, mostly of Archie running errands for Nero. So the story lacked the fun of a whodunnit, the wit of hardboiled detective stories, and the endearing characters of other mystery series. The ending was over-the-top and not very satisfying. Overall, the story was surprisingly mediocre considering that Rex Stout was highly lauded for this series. I’ll take Dashiell Hammett over this any day. I might have been more likely to excuse for being the first in the series except that in the forward, Loren D. Estleman commends Stout for writing the characters the same in the first book as in the last claiming that this allows readers to jump in anywhere in the series to enjoy the mystery. But to me, a series made of thirty-three novels and fourty-one novellas and short stories that stars characters who never grow or change is a red flag. I don’t want to read seventy-four variations of the same story! If I read a series, I want the characters to evolve.
 
This might be a series I try again at some point, but I am not in any rush to continue it.


RATING FACTORS:
Ease of Reading: 3 Stars
Writing Style: 3 Stars
Characters and Character Development: 2 Stars
Plot Structure and Development: 3 Stars
Level of Captivation: 3 Stars
Originality: 2 Stars

Sarah Escorsa

Okay. Yes. So. I should have loved this book. I really should have. Only I didn’t (as my rating might or might not indicate). I should have loved this book because I’m a slightly very huge fan of books and movies from the 1930s and 1940s. And I should have loved this book because I’m a slightly very huge fan of classic mysteries. But I didn’t and I didn’t, so I didn’t.

Fer-de-Lance wasn’t too bad at first. Somewhat sleep-inducing and with a pace that would please a lethargic barnacle, but well, you know, not too bad and stuff. Then the mystery kicked in, the story picked up speed, and stuff started getting moderately interesting. And that’s when the racist crap kicked in. (view spoiler)[
  

  

  
  

  

  Pretty much, yeah.
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Yes, I know, overt xenophobic views were not uncommon in literature when the book was written, but this fact shouldn’t be used as an excuse for leniency. Especially not in this case. The thing is, the character voicing racist views (Archie, one of the MCs) isn’t the problem here—some characters will have shitty beliefs—it’s the fact that his opinion remains unchallenged throughout the book that is. No opposing perspectives are offered and there is nothing in the story that comes to contradict the character’s despicably bigoted attitude. (Quite the contrary, really, since part of the reason why a particular man is suspected of foul play is because he looks like a “foreigner” and has a “foreign” name. Then again, he is naught but a “dirty spiggoty,” so of course that makes him instantly suspicious 🙄🙄.) This gives the impression that his beliefs are facts, rather than a personal judgment, and should be accepted as such. And if the author didn’t deem it necessary to challenge all the crap that comes out of his character’s mouth, what does it say about his shitty beliefs? Nothing good, if you ask me. Nothing bloody shrimping good at all.



But hey, it’s not ALL bad. Of course it’s not. I mean, the characters are not just racist as fish. Oh, no. They condone gratuitous violence, too. Especially towards foreign women. And half-breed little kids. Because they’re principled like that. Yeah yeah, I know, I have been known to condone violence, too. But even though my moral compass is slightly fished up, I do have personal ethics. Sometimes. And (weirdly enough) said personal ethics tell me it’s somewhat bloody very wrong to (view spoiler)[⚠️ Watch out, really real spoilers coming right up. Read at your own risk and stuff. (view spoiler)[shoot one’s cheating wife and her lover in front of one’s 2-year-old kid. (Why bother to ask for divorce when it takes two seconds to redecorate one’s bedroom—and one’s kid’s toy collection—with mommy brains, anyway?) And then spend years wondering why one didn’t shoot the kid, too. (Because why the shrimp not?) But of course this happened in Argentina, the land of spiggoty savages, which makes it all perfectly alright and acceptable and stuff. And clearly explains why both MCs failed to express any sort of disapproval/shock/discombobulation/eye-batting/choose all that apply upon hearing this delightful little tale. (hide spoiler)] (hide spoiler)] Ah, such an endearing duo these guys make.



➽ Nefarious Last Words (NLW™): you might be a tiny little bit kind of moderately surprised to hear I’m still considering giving book two in this series a try. Because I’m masochistic like that. Because my very many evil nemeses friends who 💕lurve💕 Nero Wolfe might very well unleash their homicidal minions on me if I don’t read at least half of a quarter of an installment right. So please pray for my nefarious soul and stuff. (view spoiler)[
  

  

  
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[Pre-review nonsense]

*expects her friends list to shrink somewhat ferociously when her soon-to-be-former-friends see her rating for this most beloved mystery classic of theirs*

Meh stuff + racist crap + MCs with shitty morals (not to be mistaken with scrumptious MCs with deliciously fished-up morals) =



Well no comment for now anyway. Because full review to come and stuff. (If the Fluffy Siberian Bunnies—FSB™—don't get me first, that is.)

P.S. Yeah yeah yeah, I know, I read it wrong.

Daryl Houston

It's certainly dated, but I enjoyed giving old Nero Wolfe another shot. I hadn't read any of these since I was a kid.

Fer-de-lance

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