All my previous reading by this author, nine books in total, seems to have occurred between 2015 and 2017. There were no utter duds, but there were no stellar reads either. In some ways the books seemed ‘alright’ or ‘okay’. After 2017 I am assuming my existing supply of Stout books dried up and in the intervening years there has not been any drive to seek any more out. Until now. Naturally the reason is book group, who picked Black Orchid as July’s read. Brad who is a much bigger Nero Wolfe fan than me, has already written up his thoughts.
Lawrence Block writes the introduction for the Bantam Books 1992 edition that I read. He talks about why people re-read Rex Stout’s books so much. He opines that:
‘They do this not for the plots, which are serviceable, nor for the suspense which is a good deal short of hair-trigger even on first reading. Nor, I shouldn’t think, are they hoping for fresh insight into the human condition. No, those of us who reread Rex Stout do so for the pure joy of spending a few hours in the most congenial household in American letters, and in the always engaging company of Nero Wolfe and Archie Goodwin.’
I am not in a position to say whether this is true or not, so if you are a keen re-reader of Stout’s books, do let me know what motivates you. But if Block’s comment is true then maybe this is my problem – I’ve never been able to gel or click with the central duo, in the way I have with Gervase Fen, Miss Marple or Jane and Dagobert Brown. Wolfe and Goodwin alas leave me cold, and unfortunately my tenth read has not changed this. But whilst I have not transformed into a Wolfe fan, I think I have a better understanding in some respects, as to what I am not enjoying about the stories and why, which is useful for me if no one else.
Synopsis
‘Nero Wolfe has left his comfortable brownstone for the promise of a remarkably rare black orchid at a flower show—but before Wolfe and his perennially hardy sidekick, Archie Goodwin, have a chance to stop and smell the roses, a diabolically daring murder takes place right under their noses and puts a blight on the proceedings. Now Wolfe’s fancy turns to thoughts of weeding out a murderer—one who’s definitely not a garden-variety killer.’
Overall Thoughts
The opening pages in fact provided me with my first insight into what I am not enjoying about Stout’s book. It is a scene, which is intended as comic. Nero Wolfe keeps sending Archie Goodwin back to the flower show, day after day, simply to report on the condition of a particularly rare black orchid, a task Archie does not relish, but one in which he tries to find the fun side. This moment in the narrative feels like it is trying to be funny in the dialogue exchanges between Archie and Nero, but it is like the humour is on mute.
On the fourth day Nero Wolfe cannot bear to stay at home any longer and miss out on seeing the orchid in person. When he arrives at the show, we begin to see various interesting flower show specific components which weave their way into the mystery. Firstly, there is an exhibitor who thinks his exhibit has been deliberately infected with a fungus disease. Then there is the murder. This particularly killing is like a murder taking place on stage at a theatre. There are two people paid to act in a woodland glade exhibit and at one point the man is meant to sham having a nap, only then to be woken with some water being splashed at him. Naturally this time he does not wake up, having been shot through the top of the head. As a crime fiction premise, I can’t fault it, nor is the opening pace bad. So, I don’t think it is the nature of the crimes or their setups which make me find reading Stout’s books a bit dull.
But I think maybe the way the case is handled subsequently is what appeals to me less. Nero Wolfe is disinterested in getting involved in solving the crime, until he can see that there is something in it for him. I know sleuthing does not need to be a purely selfless activity, and in the case of private detectives, bills need to be paid, but Wolfe takes this in a more unpleasantly selfish direction, essentially using blackmail to try and obtain the rare orchids. It is moments like this which remind me that I find Nero unappealing as a person and as a detective. The only bit of “Nero” time I liked in this story was when he refuses to accept the word “contact” as a verb. But that is not enough to bond you with a character.
Archie Goodwin has a more likeable personality, but I think what put me off him in this story is that his actions are reported disjointedly. For example, after realising a murder has occurred, he randomly hares after a woman, he has seen once, and steals her bag to look inside it, despite there being no obvious reason for doing so. It is justified retrospectively, but it still seems like a big leap. There are other incidences where a hunch pays off or Archie is able to quickly assemble a theory for the police officer and yes through retrospective illumination they become reasonable actions, but this does not nullify the frustration felt at the time.
The crime mechanism has an interesting aspect to it [Spoiler in ROT13 Code] (Nepuvr havagragvbanyyl gevttref gur tha jura ur cvpxf hc fbzrbar’f jnyxvat fgvpx. Gur fyrhgu nppvqragnyyl orpbzvat vapevzvangrq va pevzr, vf abg haurneq bs naq abeznyyl vg jbhyq envfr gur fgnxrf naq nqq grafvba. Ohg va guvf fgbel vg oneryl pnhfrf n evccyr bs rkpvgrzrag naq V guvax guvf vf cnegvnyyl qbja gb gur punenpgref. Gur jnl gurl ner cbegenlrq naq gur jnl gurl vagrenpg jvgu rnpu bgure frrzf gb xvyy zl raguhfvnfz sbe gur cybg.)
In addition to the characterisation dampening my interest in Stout’s plot, it feels like in this case, a lot of the solving takes place off stage. Moreover, due to my lukewarm feelings towards Wolfe and Goodwin the ending to this one felt dissatisfactorily dubious and morally ambiguous. Was Wolfe’s course of action entirely necessary?
Rating: To be given when I review in my next post the second novella in this collection.