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SYNOPSIS:
The Second Confession is the second of three Nero Wolfe novels that involve crime boss Arnold Zeck and his widespread operations. (The others are And Be a Villain and In the Best Families.) In this, Wolfe investigates Louis Rony.
This novel not only gives Nero full play for all his egocentricities but also provides Archie with a satisfying number of opportunities to risk his neck, to fall into what he never calls love, and to be baffled simultaneously by an exceptionally well-concealed murderer and an infuriatingly noncommittal Nero.
Probably never before has the reader of a detective story been given quite so full an array of facts; never has the murderer been at the same time so clearly pointed out and yet so bafflingly concealed. We suspect that a lot of people who will presently be talking about The Second Confession will be opening the conversation with some such praise as "Not since I read Agatha Christie's The Murder of Roger Ackroyd . . ."
A fanatic millionaire, a lawless politician, and a gangland boss all wanted Nero Wolfe to do things their way. Money was no object—neither was life or death . . . .
QUOTATIONS:
"Wolfe shook his head. 'You're expecting a good deal of yourself. I'm more than twice your age, and up with you in self-esteem, but I'm afraid of someone. Don't overdo it. There are numerous layers of honesty, and the deepest should not have a monopoly.'" (p. 195)
"On the long list of things that cops don't like, up near the top is acting as if finding a corpse is a purely private matter."
REVIEW:
I've read Christie and I've read Sayers, but I've never touched Stout or even knew much about his works. So when Ms. Alice brought him up, mentioning that Archie Goodwin is a fictional fantasy man of hers, I decided to pick up a book while I was at the library. They didn't have the first in the series, so I picked a title at random.
The plot of The Second Confession starts with a powerful executive wanting to hire Nero Wolfe to prove his prospective son-in-law is a Communist. That leads us through schemes and spying, doped drinks and fingernails to the face, Commies and the series's answer to Moriarty, a man named Zeck. It was a neat labyrinth, with the end being both ingenious and and head-smackingly obvious.
What I was interested in, however, were the characters. It is a series, after all, and one should certainly get to know one's narrator!
So. We have Nero Wolfe. He is a large man, and he is an orchid-fancier. He is also a rather reclusive genius, solving things mainly from his comfy office chair, like a more surly Mycroft Holmes. His right-hand man is Archie Goodwin, who Wikipedia tells me is from Ohio. Holla! I liked him immediately. He's very funny and witty without being a snob. He's also quite a hit with the ladies. A private eye living on the edges of the law who is always ready with a retort is sexy, donchaknow.
I am interested in how these two came into contact. They seem mutually devoted to each other, but I don't know why yet. I also don't yet know what Goodwin or Wolfe look like, except for fat in the case of the latter. I'm looking forward to reading more about these two. [Alex / http://xrae.typepad.com/blog/]
