"Booby Trap" is a
Nero Wolfe
Nero Wolfe is a brilliant, obese and eccentric fictional armchair detective created in 1934 by American mystery writer Rex Stout. Wolfe was born in Montenegro and keeps his past murky. He lives in a luxurious brownstone on West 35th Street in Ne ...
mystery
Mystery, The Mystery, Mysteries or The Mysteries may refer to:
Arts, entertainment, and media Fictional characters
*Mystery, a cat character in ''Emily the Strange''
Films
* ''Mystery'' (2012 film), a 2012 Chinese drama film
* ''Mystery'' ( ...
novella
A novella is a narrative prose fiction whose length is shorter than most novels, but longer than most short stories. The English word ''novella'' derives from the Italian ''novella'' meaning a short story related to true (or apparently so) facts ...
by
Rex Stout
Rex Todhunter Stout (; December 1, 1886 – October 27, 1975) was an American writer noted for his detective fiction. His best-known characters are the detective Nero Wolfe and his assistant Archie Goodwin, who were featured in 33 novels and ...
, first published in the August 1944 issue of ''
The American Magazine
''The American Magazine'' was a periodical publication founded in June 1906, a continuation of failed publications purchased a few years earlier from publishing mogul Miriam Leslie. It succeeded ''Frank Leslie's Popular Monthly'' (1876–1904), ' ...
''. It first appeared in book form as the second novella in the short-story collection ''
Not Quite Dead Enough'', published by
Farrar & Rinehart
Farrar & Rinehart (1929–1946) was a United States book publishing company founded in New York. Farrar & Rinehart enjoyed success with both nonfiction and novels, notably, the landmark Rivers of America Series and the first ten books in the Nero ...
in 1944.
Plot summary
![Wolfe-Booby-Trap-2](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/cd/Wolfe-Booby-Trap-2.jpg)
Major Goodwin has been working for Army Intelligence for some time already, and has recently concluded a dangerous mission concerning another problem besides the Nazis: greed by munitions contractors jockeying for post-war power, in the present case by industrial espionage concerning an advanced type of grenade.
Although Archie has managed to unravel a major piece of the puzzle by a recent mission in the South, another officer in his unit, Captain Cross, has just been murdered at a New York hotel, and the remaining members of the unit, plus Wolfe and Congressman Shattuck, have gathered in an Army office to discuss some anonymous letters that Shattuck, as Chairman of a
Congressional war committee, has been receiving about how industrial espionage is compromising the war effort and is therefore a national security matter. During the meeting, one of the officers, whose son has just been killed in action in
Europe
Europe is a large peninsula conventionally considered a continent in its own right because of its great physical size and the weight of its history and traditions. Europe is also considered a Continent#Subcontinents, subcontinent of Eurasia ...
, suddenly announces that he wants to go to Washington to confer with General Carpenter, the Pentagon official in charge of the unit. He has brought a suitcase with him, and his highly irregular request is granted. Earlier, Archie has been issued one of the advanced grenades in question which he kept in Wolfe's house, now his Army barracks, mostly as a souvenir, but Wolfe didn't like to have it in the house, and before the meeting Archie has returned the grenade to the Army—i.e. the same office.
The meeting breaks up, since the unit is rapidly depleting (one dead, another heading to Washington, the rest under scrutiny because of the letters). As Wolfe and Goodwin are returning to the building later on the same day, a massive explosion is heard. Since the building is operated clandestinely by Army Intelligence, the
NYPD
The New York City Police Department (NYPD), officially the City of New York Police Department, established on May 23, 1845, is the primary municipal law enforcement agency within the City of New York, the largest and one of the oldest in ...
, in the shape of
Inspector Cramer
The Nero Wolfe stories are populated by a cast of supporting characters who help sustain the sense that each story takes place in familiar surroundings.
Household
Fritz Brenner
Fritz Brenner is an exceptionally talented Swiss cook who prepares ...
show up, but Wolfe and Goodwin's uncooperativeness, normal as it has been in civilian matters, confuses Cramer now that Goodwin wears an Army uniform — the same uniform Cramer's son is wearing in Australia.
The story ends with Archie taking another date to the Flamingo Club — and not Lily Rowan. Unlike a
Sam Spade
Sam Spade is a fictional character and the protagonist of Dashiell Hammett's 1930 novel '' The Maltese Falcon''. Spade also appeared in four lesser-known short stories by Hammett.
''The Maltese Falcon'', first published as a serial in the pulp ...
or
Raymond Chandler
Raymond Thornton Chandler (July 23, 1888 – March 26, 1959) was an American-British novelist and screenwriter. In 1932, at the age of forty-four, Chandler became a detective fiction writer after losing his job as an oil company executive durin ...
story, any actual romantic impulses that Archie may have are cleared into the wings, and even this final action is not necessarily a celebration but may itself contribute to the war effort in its own small way.
Publication history
"Booby Trap"
*1944, ''
The American Magazine
''The American Magazine'' was a periodical publication founded in June 1906, a continuation of failed publications purchased a few years earlier from publishing mogul Miriam Leslie. It succeeded ''Frank Leslie's Popular Monthly'' (1876–1904), ' ...
'', August 1944, abridged
[Townsend, Guy M., ''Rex Stout: An Annotated Primary and Secondary Bibliography''. New York: Garland Publishing, 1980. John McAleer, Judson Sapp and Arriean Schemer are associate editors of this definitive publication history. ]
The unfamiliar word
"Nero Wolfe talks in a way that no human being on the face of the earth has ever spoken, with the possible exception of Rex Stout after he had a gin and tonic," said
Michael Jaffe
Michael Muir Jaffe (born January 9, 1945) is an American TV and film producer. He started out in the business with his father, producer and former AFTRA lawyer Henry Jaffe (1907–1992). His mother was actress Jean Muir. He has more than 120 ...
, executive producer of the A&E TV series, ''
A Nero Wolfe Mystery
''Nero Wolfe'' is a television series adapted from Rex Stout's Rex Stout bibliography#Nero Wolfe corpus, series of detective stories that aired for two seasons (2001–2002) on A&E (TV channel), A&E. Set in New York City sometime in the 1940s– ...
''. "Readers of the Wolfe saga often have to turn to the dictionary because of the erudite vocabulary of Wolfe and sometimes of Archie," wrote Rev. Frederick G. Gotwald.
Nero Wolfe's vocabulary is one of the hallmarks of the character. Examples of unfamiliar words — or unfamiliar uses of words that some would otherwise consider familiar — are found throughout the corpus, often in the give-and-take between Wolfe and Archie.
* Springe, chapter 8.
''Not Quite Dead Enough''
*1944, New York:
Farrar & Rinehart
Farrar & Rinehart (1929–1946) was a United States book publishing company founded in New York. Farrar & Rinehart enjoyed success with both nonfiction and novels, notably, the landmark Rivers of America Series and the first ten books in the Nero ...
, September 7, 1944, hardcover
:Contents include "
Not Quite Dead Enough" and "Booby Trap"
:In his limited-edition pamphlet, ''Collecting Mystery Fiction #9, Rex Stout's Nero Wolfe Part I'',
Otto Penzler
Otto Penzler (born July 8, 1942) is a German-born American editor of mystery fiction, and proprietor of The Mysterious Bookshop in New York City.
Biography
Born in Germany to a German-American mother and a German father, Penzler moved to The B ...
describes the
first edition
The bibliographical definition of an edition includes all copies of a book printed from substantially the same setting of type, including all minor typographical variants.
First edition
According to the definition of ''edition'' above, a b ...
of ''Not Quite Dead Enough'': "Red cloth, front cover and spine printed with black; rear cover blank. Issued in a mainly black, red and blue pictorial dust wrapper. … The first edition has the publisher's monogram logo on the copyright page. the second printing, in the same year, is identical to the first except that the logo was dropped."
:In April 2006, ''Firsts: The Book Collector's Magazine'' estimated that the first edition of ''Not Quite Dead Enough'' had a value of between $1,000 and $2,000.
[Smiley, Robin H., "Rex Stout: A Checklist of Primary First Editions." ''Firsts: The Book Collector's Magazine'' (Volume 16, Number 4), April 2006, p. 33]
*1944, Toronto: Oxford University Press, 1944, hardcover
*1944, New York: Detective Book Club #33, December 1944, hardcover
*1944, New York: Detective Book Club, 1944, hardcover
*1945, New York:
Armed Services Edition
Armed Services Editions (ASEs) were small paperback books of fiction and nonfiction that were distributed in the American military during World War II. From 1943 to 1947, some 122 million copies of more than 1,300 ASE titles were distributed to s ...
#P-6, February 1945, paperback
*1946, New York: Grosset & Dunlap, 1946, hardcover
*New York:
Lawrence E. Spivak, Jonathan Press #J27, not dated, paperback
*1949, New York: Dell
mapback
Mapback is a term used by paperback collectors to refer to the earliest paperback books published by Dell Books, beginning in 1943. The books are known as mapbacks because the back cover of the book contains a map that illustrates the location ...
#267, 1949, paperback
*1963, New York: Pyramid (Green Door) #R-822, February 1963, paperback
*1992, New York: Bantam Crimeline October 1992, paperback, Rex Stout Library edition with introduction by
John Lutz
John Michael Lutz (born April 23, 1973) is an American actor, comedian, and screenwriter. He is best known for playing J. D. Lutz on the NBC sitcom ''30 Rock'', and for his work as a writer on the NBC series ''Saturday Night Live'' for seven s ...
*1995, Burlington, Ontario: Durkin Hayes Publishing, DH Audio July 1994, audio cassette (unabridged, read by
Saul Rubinek
Saul Hersh Rubinek (born July 2, 1948) is a German-born Canadian actor, director, producer, and playwright.
He is widely known for his television roles, notably Artie Nielsen on '' Warehouse 13,'' Donny Douglas on ''Frasier'', Lon Cohen on ''A N ...
)
*2004, Auburn, California: The Audio Partners Publishing Corp., Mystery Masters February 2004, audio CD (unabridged, read by Michael Prichard)
*2010, New York: Bantam Crimeline May 26, 2010,
e-book
An ebook (short for electronic book), also known as an e-book or eBook, is a book publication made available in digital form, consisting of text, images, or both, readable on the flat-panel display of computers or other electronic devices. Alt ...
Adaptations
''Nero Wolfe'' (Paramount Television)
"Booby Trap" is credited as the basis for the teleplay for "Gambit," the tenth episode of ''
Nero Wolfe
Nero Wolfe is a brilliant, obese and eccentric fictional armchair detective created in 1934 by American mystery writer Rex Stout. Wolfe was born in Montenegro and keeps his past murky. He lives in a luxurious brownstone on West 35th Street in Ne ...
'' (1981), an NBC TV series starring
William Conrad
William Conrad (born John William Cann Jr., September 27, 1920 – February 11, 1994) was an American actor, producer, and director whose entertainment career spanned five decades in radio, film, and television, peaking in popularity when he s ...
as Nero Wolfe and
Lee Horsley
Lee Arthur Horsley (born May 15, 1955) is an American film, television, and theater actor known for starring roles in the television series ''Nero Wolfe'' (1981), '' Matt Houston'' (1982–1985), and ''Paradise'' (1988–1991). He starred in the ...
as Archie Goodwin. Other members of the regular cast include
George Voskovec
Jiří Voskovec (), born Jiří Wachsmann and known in the United States as George Voskovec (June 19, 1905 – July 1, 1981) was a Czech actor, writer, dramatist, and director who became an American citizen in 1955. Throughout much of his career ...
(Fritz Brenner),
Robert Coote
Robert Coote (4 February 1909 – 26 November 1982) was an English actor. He played aristocrats or British military types in many films, and created the role of Colonel Hugh Pickering in the long-running original Broadway production of ''My Fai ...
(Theodore Horstmann),
George Wyner
George Wyner (born October 20, 1945) is an American film and television actor. Wyner graduated from Syracuse University in 1968 as a drama major and was an in-demand character actor by the early 1970s. Wyner has made guest appearances in over 10 ...
(Saul Panzer) and
Allan Miller
Allan Miller is an American stage, film, and television actor.
Biography
Miller was born in Brooklyn, New York, the son of Anna (née Diamond) and Benedict Miller. He served in the U.S. Army after World War II during the occupation of Japan ...
(Inspector Cramer). Guest stars include
Darren McGavin
Darren is a masculine given name of uncertain etymological origins. Some theories state that it originated from an Anglicisation of the Irish first name Darragh or Dáire, meaning "Oak Tree". According to other sources, it is thought to come from ...
(John Alan Bredeman) and
Patti Davis
Patricia Ann Davis (' Reagan; born October 21, 1952) is an American actress and author. She is the daughter of U.S. president Ronald Reagan and his second wife, Nancy Reagan.
Early life
Patricia Ann Reagan was born to Ronald and Nancy Reagan o ...
(Dana Groves). Directed by
George McCowan
George McCowan (June 27, 1927 – November 1, 1995) was a Canadian film and television director in the 1960s, 1970s and 1980s.
McCowan began his career working for the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation. He worked as an actor and director fo ...
from a teleplay by Stephen Kandel, "Gambit" aired April 3, 1981.
References
External links
*
Not Quite Dead Enough' first edition dustjacket at the
NYPL Digital Gallery
The New York Public Library (NYPL) is a public library system in New York City. With nearly 53 million items and 92 locations, the New York Public Library is the second largest public library in the United States (behind the Library of Congress) ...
*
{{Nero Wolfe
1944 short stories
Nero Wolfe short stories
Works originally published in The American Magazine