A FAMILY AFFAIR (Rex Stout)

It's been quite a few years since I read Rex Stout.  Remember the TV series with William Conrad as Nero Wolfe and Lee Horsely as Archie Goodwin?

One thing that made this a bit difficult to read was the number of characters.  Many of them were "regulars," but not being familiar with them it was hard to keep track.  If you aren't a reader of the series (or haven't read it for years), it is kind of difficult to follow the personalities and habits of the main characters.

In A Family Affair, waiter Pierre Ducos arrives at Nero Wolfe's doorstep saying that someone is going to kill him.  Archie Goodwin informs him that he can't see the great detective until the next morning and installs him in a bedroom to stay the night.  Soon afterward a bomb detonates and Ducos is dead.  So begins a complicated series of deaths, red herrings, and characters.

I read a review of this, Stout's final Nero Wolfe novel, by Madeline St. Just, who considers this to be a "weak" mystery.  As someone who is much more familiar with the series than I, St. Just made some excellent points about the contrived nature of the killer's actions and reactions during this case and the lack of the usual depth in the recurring characters, plus she considers the murder methods and motivation to be far-fetched.

Personally, I think that another reading would give me a much better experience.  My advice, actually, unless you're a mystery reader who can't enjoy one unless you try to solve the crime as you read, is to look at the end and see who did it before you get into the story.  I wish I had!