George Kelley thinks The Golden Spiders is the best of the Nero Wolfe series, and Art Scott and Max Allan Collins also rate it highly, so I thought I'd reread it. I read the edition on the left, since that's the one I have.After reading it, I find that it's never going to be my favorite (I'm sticking with The Doorbell Rang) for one reason.* The setup is a good one. Archie, a bit irritated with Wolfe, brings in a neighborhood kid as a potential client. The boy says he was running the old windshield-cleaning gag, starting first with the driver's window, when the driver, a woman wearing golden spider earrings, turns to him and says, "Call a cop." The kid doesn't like cops, so he goes to Wolfe, who also doesn't like cops. Soon the kid is killed by a hit-and-run driver, as is a woman who comes to Wolfe claiming to have been the woman in the car. She isn't killed before handing Wolfe a $10,000 check, however, and he intends to earn the money because he doesn't like it that people who come to him for help are being killed with impunity. Saul, Orrie, and Fred are called in, and the game's afoot.
What they uncover is a scam operating within a charity designed to help displaced persons, and it's a complex situation. Wolfe figures all out, of course, and he makes an assumption or two that wouldn't occur to most detectives. That's why he's so good. Archie has plenty of opportunities for wisecracks and flirts with attractive women. Both he and Wolfe irritate Inspector Cramer, and all the familiar routines are observed or mentioned. The food sounds great, although Wolfe is irritated with one particular meal, and that sets everything in motion. Wonderful stuff for the most part.
*MASSIVE SPOILER ALERT: What sets this book apart from the others in the series (at least in my view) is the level of violence, particularly in one scene set in a garage. Using a technique called "the crisscross," Archie tortures a man to get information from him. Archie calls it "stimulating" him. It's not the kind of thing I expected from Archie, but it works well and shows that Archie is a true tough guy. There's more than torture, too. There's even a shootout. A good one. Not the usual thing in a Nero Wolfe book, but done very well. Still, the torture scene didn't sit well with me, and while I liked the book a lot, it's not going to wind up in my Top 5.
7 comments:
I read the whole Nero Wolfe series in order in a year and wrote up my reactions to each book in my old apazine, MAZES. THE GOLDEN SPIDERS stands out because of the factors you identified: a higher level of violence than the other books in the series and the cunning plot. It may be because THE GOLDEN SPIDERS is so different that makes it my favorite.
THE DOORBELL RANG is very good, too!
Probably not in my top-10, largely because of the scene you mentioned. I thought the underlying hook, though, was interesting (and has perhaps greater resonance today than it did when I first read the book in the 1960s; there's another Wolfe story--a novella, Cop Killer, I think is the title--that also focuses on refugees).
It's my favorite of the post-war Wolfes, somewhat because of the violence, revealing Archie to be a true tough guy PI. Of the early books my favorite is TOO MANY COOKS.
I liked it but also was surprised at the violence, but what shocked me was the killing of a child. I think that's part of the reason Archie is feeling a little less gentle than usual, and he may have said as much - I can't remember now.
I believe this was the first story adapted for the Nero Wolfe TV show, and the garage scenes at least were pretty faithful.
In my opinion, Archie's approach to interrogating Lips Egan was entirely appropriate. First, Wolfe & Archie's recorded cases usually involve businessmen, professionals and the wealthy (Wolfe's fees). In this unusual case Archie has to deal with a genuine lowlife hoodlum, a strongarm specialist. Second, more to the point, just minutes before he (& Saul) commence with the crisscross, Archie was watching Egan & his pal apply torture to Fred Durkin (and remember, he gave Egan an out, the opportunity to call the cops). What Archie chose to do in this situation was merely a case of horses for courses - or sauce for the goose, if you prefer.
I like this one a lot, but I like almost every one of them. I like it because the story is a bit different and I like the portrayal of the non-series characters in this one. But there are many many ahead of this one. Favorites are Fer-de-Lance and Some Buried Caesar, and The Silent Speaker.
Sounds interesting, Bill, but I can't imagine anything topping The Doorbell Rang.
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