And Be A Villain

 

A few weeks ago, my "Friday's Favorite OTR" post was an episode of Murder is My Hobby, in which a guest on a live radio broadcast is poisoned while the show is on the air.

Someone on Facebook posted a comment saying that he thought a Nero Wolf novel used the same premise. I've read all the Wolfe novels, but I've never re-read the series methodically. So it's been many years since I've read some of them and simply didn't remember this particular plot.

Well, by brilliant and beautiful wife Angela saw the comment and remembered the novel right away: And Be a Villain. Rex Stout wrote this one in 1948, during the run of Murder is My Hobby. Since the episode I highlighted is undated, it's impossible to know if it was broadcast before or after the Nero Wolfe tale. It's not impossible that the show's writers lifted the idea from the novel, though to be fair, they did wrap an original story around the concept. It could be just a coincidence. I suppose it's not impossible that Stout heard the episode and decided to improve on the premise with a better and more intricate plot. In any case, Murder is My Hobby was an entertaining but still second-tier OTR show. Rex Stout's novel are classics of the mystery genre. 

The novel is unique among most of the other entries in the series for several reasons. First, it's one of the few times that Wolfe goes out looking for a job because he needs the money. He's been hit with a big income tax bill and the fee he asks for in exchance for solving a recent murder will cover that bill.

Second, it's the only time I can think of when Wolfe, after uncovering a key fact, gives this information to Inspector Cramer and then sits back expecting the cops to finish the job. He assumes that the case can be wound up through regular police routine. When he's proven wrong, he gets involved again.

The case involves a guest on a radio show who is murdered on the air, during a bit when the host and her guests drink the product of one of their sponsers. The guest's bottle is poisoned.

It's Wolfe who eventually figures out that the poison was probably intended for the host, which naturally changes the direction of the police investigation. But when Cramer still hits a dead end, Archie uses a clever trick to play on Wolfe's ego and get the corpulent detective working again. Or rather, to get the corpulent detective to think about the case and get Archie to do the legwork.

Another murder, at first apparently unconnected, is carried out, leading to the possibility that the motive is linked to a cleverly run blackmail ring. At this point, Wolfe receives a vaguely threatening phone call from Arnold Zeck, a master criminal that Stout was gradually building up to be Wolfe's Professor Moriarty. 

It's only when a third person is abruptly murdered that Wolfe is able to link everything together and identify the killer. Arnold Zeck calls Wolfe one more time, foreshadowing the day when Wolfe will actually have to leave his brownstone and go into hiding while he deals with the master crook. 

All the usual strengths of Rex Stout's brilliant novels are here--Archie's humorous and mildly cynical narration, his interactions with Wolfe, and a well-constructed murder mystery with a satisfying denoument. And the unusual aspects--primarily Wolfe and Cramer playing nice together rather than clashing--adds additional spice to the tale. 

Reading a classic mystery always makes me want to solve a murder. But I never get to do so.