Review: Nero Wolfe Knockoff
Rating: 3 out of 5
Date: 06 14, 2011
This is a pure Nero Wolfe knock-off all the way to naming the assistant "Archie".  Like most knock-offs, it pales when compared to the real thing.  Julius Katz is a lazy PI who only works when he has to to support his wine (rather than orchids) collection, his fine dining (sound familiar?) and poker games.  He also solves the mystery from his luxury townhouse, having Archie and other PI's do the legwork (again right out of Wolfe).  Although he has all the characteristics of Wolfe, he does not have the endearing tongue-in-cheek snobbery of Wolfe so that Julius comes off somewhat wan.Archie, the assistant, does not make sense.  "He" is a two inch by two inch super computer that somehow is developing emotions and a propensity to nag with sarcasm (again, sound like the original Archie?).  He can do things like run a picture through the DMV registry to identify a person.  You would think with that kind of capacity, he would be much more actual help to Julius.Now that I've ripped the characters, the plot is not bad.  An over-the-hill writer hired Julius as part of a publicity stunt.  He soon ends up murdered and the hunt is on for the killer.  The book follows the tried and true formula at the end of bringing all the suspects into the Townhouse study as Julius solves the crime, but that part does work.  Archie tells the story and although he reports everything he sees, Julius has done things out of his sight so, like all good mysteries, the reader only gets to see what the author wants him to see.  Since there is so much behind the scenes that is revealed at the end, this is not the kind of mystery that the reader can solve on his own.  One can only sit back, like Archie, and admire Julius' genius.All-in-all a pretty good mystery drawn down by the inevitable comparisons to the mastery of Nero Wolfe.