Evening star., 1934-12-05
NEW BOOKS
AT RANDOM
Margaret Cermond.

FER-DE-LANCE. BY Rex Stout. New
York: Farrar & Rinehart.
Nero Wolfe. new figure in mys-
terry fiction, Is presented In a story
that is proportionately as immense
in problem as he himself is in stature.
He is a man of ponderous bulk Ma
ture has clothed his giants frame
with too many layers of upholstery
to give him any grace Of form or
to permit an easy freedom of move
ment. He chooses his own time and
his own place for meeting those with
whom he wishes to talk, and they
may take it or leave it. He is re-
garded as an eccentric because he
breaks the daily routine of life in
his own rooms for no one. because
neither prominent officials nor medi-
ocre underlings can fathom the
sources Of his knowledge or the
methods by which he CLEANS it, and
Two hours each morning and two
hours each afternoon he spends in
the plant room. Those whose busi-
ness urgently requires his attention
during those hours may cool their
heels as long as they like. He re-
ceives all visitors, titled or minus any
distinction, seated.
1t is on Wednesday that Maria
Maffei. an Italian woman of fine
character. appeals to, Wolfe to find
her brother, who has been missing
cir
Is timely, for 1t costs a lot of money
to maintain a greenhouse for the
culture of orchids and Wolfe is about
broke. The woman has only small
amount Of savings, but she will pay
all OF it for the restoration Of her
| brother. Archie Goodwin. private
secretary. investigator and right-hand
man for Wolfe, is sent to Carlo Maffei's
| rooming house to make the first in
quiries, and after an apparently fruit
less search for clues decides to take
the young girl who cleaned the miss
ing mans room for an interview wit
Wolfe. An inquisition at the hands
Of Wolfe, as described by Archie Good
win, becomes thing Of beauty. After
| hours OF questioning it is a simple
statement concerning a torn news
paper that finally yields the key to
q startling truth.
While playing foursome on Sum-
day before Maffeis disappearance,
Peter Oliver Barstow, prominent and
wealthy resident of WestcheSter
County and president Of Holland Uni
versity, had been stricken with a
heart attack and had died on the
golf links. On Tuesday his body had
been committed to the earth in the
quiet dignity befltting his professional
and social position. On Thursday
Archie Goodwin arrives in White Plains
with an offer from Wolfe to make a
$4,000 wager with District Attorney
| Anderson that If he will have the
body Of Barstow exhumed and en-
autopsy performed a poisoned needle
will be found in the mans stomach.
The length Of the needle, the ma
terial Of which it is made. its position
in the mans anatomy and the slant
on which it entered his body are
! described in the challenge The wager
does not take and Archie returns to
New York, but the much perturbed
district attorney arrives in Wolfes
| Office the next morning and is allowed
the happy privilege of working himself
into a temper until Wolfe decides to
receive him.
The district attorney Is given his
choice of accepting the wager or of
having the newspapers give the first
information that Barstow had been
murdered. He accepts the wager and
the autopsy is performed. Wolfes
prediction of the result is proved and
things begin to happen. Meanwhile
the body of Carlo Maffei has been
found in a thicket a few miles out
of Scarsdale. He had been stabbed
| in the back. BarStow's widow, upon
| learning that her husbands death
had been wrought by the hand of a
murderer, offers $4,000 for his detec-
tion and punishment, and Wolfe, in
need Of funds, undertakes to earn the
reward.
The story is told by Archie Good
win, legs and action for his noun
famous employer, interviewer. investi-
gator and spokesman for Wolfe when
he takes notion that he does not
care to put on an inquisition of his
own, which is often. Archie is a
| thoroughly likable chap. competent,
temperamental and an inveterate
drinker Of milk The methods Of
Wolfe are different from those of any
other man hunter of fiction, and his
philosophical deliberations, calcula-
tions and deductions place him i'm
mediately in the ranks of the best
He is an intellectual genius, always
just step or two ahead of those who
would give much to prove him wrong
but who have learned to their sorrow
that he has most disconcerting
habit of being dead right.
Rex Stout has created two strikingly
effective characters, and it Is to be
sincerely hoped that they will be
given many other mysteries to solve
STILL DEAD. BY Ronald Knox
New York: E. P. Dutton & Co.,
Inc.
Where else than in the eerie mists
| that Shrolfd the hills of Scotland could