What do you think?
Rate this book
206 pages, Mass Market Paperback
First published October 26, 1953
By now you have tens of thousands of words of reports and statements, and I admit it's possible that buried somewhere in them is a fact or a phrase I might think cogent, but even if you cart it all up here I don't intend to wade through it.
Nero Wolfe is investigating the murder of Mrs. Fromm with his accustomed vigor, skill, and laziness. He will not rest until he gets the bastard or until bedtime, whichever comes first.
"Yeah. I'll try to frame this right. Except for newspaper or radio items connected with his death, had or have you ever seen or heard of him?"
"Not under that name."
"Damn it, under any name?"
"Not to my knowledge."
"Have you any reason to suppose or suspect that the man found dead in that alley was someone you had ever seen or heard of in any connection whatever?"
"That's more like it," Wolfe said approvingly. "That should settle it. The answer is no. May I ask one? Have you any reason to suppose or suspect that the answer should be yes?"
If there were twenty of us, including Rowcliff, starving on an island, and we were balloting to elect the one we would carve up for a barbecue, I wouldn't vote for Rowcliff because I know I couldn't keep him down; and compared to his opinion of me, mine of him is sympathetic.