Review: Very entertaining & ALL by Stout
Rating: 5 out of 5
Date: 04 15, 2013
I beg to differ with another reviewer's inference that these stories are not all by Rex Stout; that is incorrect. These are ALL written by him. They are not, however, all detective or mystery stories, but the descriptive blurb says as much, so this should come as no surprise. Some of these stories have a flippant or humorous tone reflective of both the period in which they were written and a (then) young writer trying to find his stylistic voice. While these early pulp stories are obviously neither Stout's best nor most memorable works, they are still very good, and their relative obscurity and prior unavailability should render them of significant interest to admirers of Rex Stout who wish to read something by him earlier and other than his fabulous Nero Wolfe novels. (For that same reason, one may also wish to read his early adventure novel "Under the Andes" available in the Kindle Store as a public domain freebie.) Even apart from the Rex Stout connection, these are 26 well-written and highly entertaining stories. "Pomfret and Peace," to single out just one, is so prescient of what political-correctness is becoming in the U.S., that that story alone is worth the price of this book: a mere 99 cents! I think this is a good deal.