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''Death of a Dude'' 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 ...
detective novel Detective fiction is a subgenre of crime fiction and mystery fiction in which an investigator or a detective—whether professional, amateur or retired—investigates a crime, often murder. The detective genre began around the same time as s ...
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 ...
, published by the
Viking Press Viking Press (formally Viking Penguin, also listed as Viking Books) is an American publishing company owned by Penguin Random House. It was founded in New York City on March 1, 1925, by Harold K. Guinzburg and George S. Oppenheim and then acquire ...
in 1969.


Plot introduction

Archie Goodwin is part of a house party at Lily Rowan's vacation home in Montana when a murder brings Nero Wolfe from New York to take a hand. Uniquely for a Nero Wolfe novel, it takes place entirely away from the brownstone on West 35th Street. (''
Some Buried Caesar ''Some Buried Caesar'' is a detective novel by American writer Rex Stout, the sixth book featuring his character Nero Wolfe. The story first appeared in abridged form in ''The American Magazine'' (December 1938), under the title "The Red Bull", it ...
'' came close, but returned to the brownstone for a brief coda; '' Too Many Cooks'' similarly came very close, but includes a brief description of the departure from the brownstone, including the good-byes from Fritz, Saul and Theodore.)


Summary

While on vacation at Lily Rowan's
Montana Montana () is a state in the Mountain West division of the Western United States. It is bordered by Idaho to the west, North Dakota and South Dakota to the east, Wyoming to the south, and the Canadian provinces of Alberta, British Columbi ...
beef Beef is the culinary name for meat from cattle (''Bos taurus''). In prehistoric times, humankind hunted aurochs and later domesticated them. Since that time, numerous breeds of cattle have been bred specifically for the quality or quantity ...
ranch A ranch (from es, rancho/Mexican Spanish) is an area of land, including various structures, given primarily to ranching, the practice of raising grazing livestock such as cattle and sheep. It is a subtype of a farm. These terms are most often ...
, Archie Goodwin becomes involved in a murder investigation. Harvey Greve, the ranch manager, has been accused of the murder of Philip Brodell, a wealthy "dude" on vacation at a neighbouring ranch. The previous year, Brodell had seduced and impregnated Greve's daughter, and Greve had sworn revenge; however both Archie and Lily are skeptical of his guilt. Brodell was shot twice, once in the back, by an inexpert marksman; as well as Greve being an excellent shot, Archie is convinced that he is too honorable to shoot an unarmed opponent in the back. However, the local
sheriff A sheriff is a government official, with varying duties, existing in some countries with historical ties to England where the office originated. There is an analogous, although independently developed, office in Iceland that is commonly transla ...
, Morley Haight, has only lazily investigated the murder before settling on Greve's guilt in large part due to a bitter grudge between the two. Archie himself suspects the Sheriff's son Gilbert, who had been wooing Greve's daughter and had himself threatened to murder Brodell, but as an outsider himself Archie is having difficulty in persuading the distrustful, hostile locals to open up to him. Despite the difficulties, Archie's honor will not allow him to abandon Greve to his plight, and he writes to Nero Wolfe informing him that he will be taking an extended leave while he tries to clear Greve's name. Irritated at the interruptions to his routine that this causes, Wolfe uses a high-ranking contact in the Montana state government to research the case before taking the almost unprecedented step of leaving his home and travelling to Montana to consult with Archie in person. Convinced by Archie's argument, Wolfe decides to solve the case to enable Archie and himself to return to New York. He stays at Lily's ranch along Archie and her other guests; Diana Kadany, an actress friend of Lily's, and Wade Worthy, an
author An author is the writer of a book, article, play, mostly written work. A broader definition of the word "author" states: "''An author is "the person who originated or gave existence to anything" and whose authorship determines responsibility f ...
writing a
biography A biography, or simply bio, is a detailed description of a person's life. It involves more than just the basic facts like education, work, relationships, and death; it portrays a person's experience of these life events. Unlike a profile or ...
of Lily's father. Wolfe contacts the local county attorney, Thomas Jessup, and convinces him to appoint himself and Archie as public investigators. Jessup, a rival to Sheriff Haight and himself skeptical of the investigation, agrees to do so, and having official status means that the locals are no longer able to ignore or dismiss their investigation. They subsequently learn that Gilbert Haight has a strong alibi proving he was unable to have committed the murder, but that there were numerous points of friction and tension between Brodell and the fellow guests and employees at the ranch he was staying at that a competent investigation should have uncovered. In particular, Wolfe and Archie agree that one cowhand, Sam Peacock, knows more than he is letting on about the crime. They attempt to meet and interview him at a local dance but are stymied by Sheriff Haight, resentful at Wolfe's undermining of his authority. When leaving the dance, however, Wolfe and Archie discover Peacock's dead body hidden in their car. Haight takes the opportunity to arrest Archie and Wolfe, but with Jessup's intervention Wolfe is placed under house arrest. While Archie is imprisoned, Wolfe orders Saul Panzer to travel to
St. Louis St. Louis () is the second-largest city in Missouri, United States. It sits near the confluence of the Mississippi and the Missouri Rivers. In 2020, the city proper had a population of 301,578, while the bi-state metropolitan area, which e ...
, Brodell's home town, to investigate any possible connections between Brodell and the other out-of-towners in the area. When Archie is released, Wolfe reveals to his fellow guests that he has learned from Saul Panzer that a photo of one of the out-of-towners was recognised as Carl Yaeger, a man suspected of strangling a young woman but who fled before he could be apprehended. He then suggests to Lily and Diana that they spend the afternoon fishing, implicitly identifying Wade Worthy as Yaeger; Brodell had recognised Worthy as Yaeger and Worthy/Yaeger had murdered him to keep his secret, but was forced to also murder Peacock when learning that Brodell had passed this information on to him. When Wolfe reveals that a St. Louis detective is arriving in town to arrest him, Worthy/Yaeger flees -- just as Wolfe planned. When Sheriff Haight and the St. Louis detective arrive at Lily's ranch to arrest Worthy/Yaeger, Wolfe reveals that he has previously arranged with Jessup and the state police to have him apprehended away from Lily's ranch in order to spare his host the embarrassment and ignominy of having a murderer taken into custody from her home, to thank Jessup for his help and to humiliate Haight in retribution for his inept investigation and spiteful treatment of himself and Archie. Worthy/Yaeger is apprehended and Harvey Greve is released from custody, allowing Wolfe and Archie to return to New York.


Publication history

*1969, New York: The
Viking Press Viking Press (formally Viking Penguin, also listed as Viking Books) is an American publishing company owned by Penguin Random House. It was founded in New York City on March 1, 1925, by Harold K. Guinzburg and George S. Oppenheim and then acquire ...
, August 20, 1969, hardcover :In his limited-edition pamphlet, ''Collecting Mystery Fiction #10, Rex Stout's Nero Wolfe Part II'',
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 ''Death of a Dude'': "Blue boards, dark blue cloth spine; front and rear covers blank; spine printed with green, blue, and white lettering. Issued in a mainly black pictorial dust wrapper." :In April 2006, ''Firsts: The Book Collector's Magazine'' estimated that the first edition of ''Death of a Dude'' had a value of between $100 and $200. The estimate is for a copy in very good to fine condition in a like dustjacket. *1969, New York: Viking (
Mystery Guild Bookspan LLC is a New York–based online bookseller, founded in 2000. Bookspan began as a joint endeavor by Bertelsmann and Time Warner. Bertelsmann took over control in 2007, and a year later, sold its interest to Najafi Companies, an Arizon ...
), October 1969, hardcover :The far less valuable Viking book club edition may be distinguished from the first edition in three ways: ::* The dust jacket has "Book Club Edition" printed on the inside front flap, and the price is absent (first editions may be price clipped if they were given as gifts). ::* Book club editions are sometimes thinner and always taller (usually a quarter of an inch) than first editions. ::* Book club editions are bound in cardboard, and first editions are bound in cloth (or have at least a cloth spine). *1969, ''Canadian Magazine'' (abridged), November 1969 *1970, London:
Collins Crime Club Collins Crime Club was an imprint of British book publishers William Collins, Sons and ran from 6 May 1930 to April 1994. Throughout its 64 years the club issued a total of 2,012in "The Hooded Gunman -- An Illustrated History of Collins Crime ...
, April 13, 1970, hardcover *1970, New York: Bantam #S-5487, August 1970, paperback *1972, London: Fontana #2673, 1972, paperback *1972, London:
Book Club Associates Book Club Associates (BCA) was a mail-order and online book selling company in the United Kingdom. It came to dominate the mail-order book-club business in the U.K. in the 1970s and 1980s through extensive advertising in Sunday newspaper colour su ...
, 1972 *1995, New York: Bantam Books January 2, 1995, paperback *2000, Newport Beach, California: Books on Tape, Inc. April 19, 2000, audio cassette (unabridged, read by
Michael Prichard Michael Prichard is an American actor and audiobook reader. Prichard grew up on a farm in Kansas, and first developed his baritone voice by singing. He earned an MFA in theater from the University of Southern California. He is best known for narr ...
) *2010, New York: Bantam May 12, 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 ...


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.Gotwald, Rev. Frederick G., ''The Nero Wolfe Handbook'' (1985; revised 1992, 2000), page 234 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. * Punctilio, chapter 5. * Plerophory, chapter 6. Plerophory also appears in the first chapter of ''Some Buried Caesar'', published three decades earlier.


References


External links

{{Nero Wolfe 1969 American novels Nero Wolfe novels by Rex Stout Viking Press books Novels set in Montana