"Kill Now—Pay Later" is a

Nero Wolfe Nero Wolfe is a brilliant, obese and eccentric fictional armchair detective created in 1934 by American mystery (fiction), mystery writer Rex Stout. Wolfe was born in Principality of Montenegro, Montenegro and keeps his past murky. He lives in a ...

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'' *Mystery, a seahorse that SpongeBob SquarePants adopts in the episode " My Pre ...

novella A novella is a narrative prose fiction whose length is shorter than most novels, but longer than most novelettes and short stories. The English word ''novella'' derives from the Italian meaning a short story related to true (or apparently so) ...

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 serialized in three issues of ''

The Saturday Evening Post ''The Saturday Evening Post'' is an American magazine published six times a year. It was published weekly from 1897 until 1963, and then every other week until 1969. From the 1920s to the 1960s, it was one of the most widely circulated and influ ...

'' (December 9, 16 and 23–30, 1961). It first appeared in book form in the short-story collection '' Trio for Blunt Instruments'', 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. Oppenheimer and then acqu ...

in 1964.

Plot summary

Wolfe's aging Greek bootblack is accused of murder and Wolfe feels he owes him something since he (apparently) listens eagerly to Wolfe's dissertations on ancient Greek culture during every shoe-shining session and moreover has told the police that "Wolfe is a great man".

Publication history

"Kill Now—Pay Later"

*1961, ''

'', December 9 + December 16 + December 23/30, 1961Townsend, 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. *1975, ''

Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine ''Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine'' is a bi-monthly American digest size fiction magazine specializing in crime fiction, particularly detective fiction, and mystery fiction. Launched in fall 1941 by Mercury Press, ''EQMM'' is named after the fic ...

'', April 1975 *1978, ''Ellery Queen's Anthology'', Fall–Winter 1978

''Trio for Blunt Instruments''

*1964, New York: The

, April 24, 1964, hardcover :Contents include "Kill Now—Pay Later", " Murder Is Corny" and " Blood Will Tell" :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 an 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 Bronx at ag ...

describes the

first edition The bibliographical definition of an edition is 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 book pr ...

of ''Trio for Blunt Instruments'': "Orange cloth, front cover and spine printed with blue rules; the front cover printed with blue lettering; the spine is printed with black lettering; rear cover blank. Issued in a mainly red pictorial dust wrapper."Penzler, Otto, ''Collecting Mystery Fiction #10, Rex Stout's Nero Wolfe Part II''. New York: The Mysterious Bookshop, 2001. Limited edition of 250 copies. :In April 2006, ''Firsts: The Book Collector's Magazine'' estimated that the first edition of ''Trio for Blunt Instruments'' had a value of between $150 and $300. The estimate is for a copy in very good to fine condition in a like dustjacket.Smiley, Robin H., "Rex Stout: A Checklist of Primary First Editions." ''Firsts: The Book Collector's Magazine'' (Volume 16, Number 4), April 2006, p. 35 *1964, New York: Viking ( Mystery Guild), June 1964, 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).Penzler, Otto, ''Collecting Mystery Fiction #9, Rex Stout's Nero Wolfe Part I''. New York: The Mysterious Bookshop, 2001. Limited edition of 250 copies. *1965, 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 ...

, January 1965, hardcover *1967, New York: Bantam #F-3298, January 1967 *1997, New York: Bantam Crimeline January 1, 1997, paperback *1997, Newport Beach, California: Books on Tape, Inc. October 31, 1997, audio cassette (unabridged, read by Michael Prichard) *2010, New York: Bantam Crimeline July 21, 2010,

e-book An ebook (short for electronic book), also spelled as e-book or eBook, is a book publication made available in electronic form, consisting of text, images, or both, readable on the flat-panel display of computers or other electronic devices. Al ...

References

External links

{{DEFAULTSORT:Kill Now-Pay Later 1961 short stories Nero Wolfe short stories Works originally published in The Saturday Evening Post