Wednesday again
25 June 2014 11:25![[personal profile]](/%20https://www.npmjs.com/package/ocr-https-www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
annotated_emIf it's Wednesday, it must be time for a reading post!
So here's what I read over the past week.
Trio for Blunt Instruments, Rex Stout: Three novellas. In "Kill Now--Pay Later," a bootblack arrives to find that his client has just gone out a tenth-story window; shortly thereafter, he turns up dead too, and his daughter wants Wolfe to find out whodunnit. "Murder Is Corny" requires Archie and Wolfe to figure out who killed the guy who delivers their weekly order of sweet corn. "Blood Will Tell" starts off when Archie receives a man's tire in the mail and quickly becomes a rather involved murder mystery.
A Right to Die, Rex Stout: This one was a little odd; Stout engages in the political environment of the Sixties by writing a murder mystery that involves a lot of the racial politics of the time. His attitudes are dated, though I suppose generally on the side of the angels, and he namedrops a town that I am familiar with, which may be the strangest part of all (to me).
The Doorbell Rang, Rex Stout: This time Wolfe and Archie take on J. Edgar Hoover's FBI, and it is very clear just how much Stout disapproves of the FBI's methods of that era. Deeply amusing and also very re-readable.
Death of a Doxy, Rex Stout: In this one, which is pretty tightly written, Wolfe and Archie must assist in exonerating one of their usual working partners when he comes under suspicion of killing a certain prostitute he had been seeing. Worth a reread.
The Father Hunt, Rex Stout: A young woman hires Archie and Wolfe to figure out who her father is, which they contrive to do against very long odds. They also manage to solve the mystery of her mother's murder while they're at it.
Rereads:
Sparrow Hill Road, Seanan McGuire
Hercule Poirot's Christmas, Agatha Christie
...It's easy to read a lot when your laptop is down and you have a four-day weekend.
So here's what I read over the past week.
Trio for Blunt Instruments, Rex Stout: Three novellas. In "Kill Now--Pay Later," a bootblack arrives to find that his client has just gone out a tenth-story window; shortly thereafter, he turns up dead too, and his daughter wants Wolfe to find out whodunnit. "Murder Is Corny" requires Archie and Wolfe to figure out who killed the guy who delivers their weekly order of sweet corn. "Blood Will Tell" starts off when Archie receives a man's tire in the mail and quickly becomes a rather involved murder mystery.
A Right to Die, Rex Stout: This one was a little odd; Stout engages in the political environment of the Sixties by writing a murder mystery that involves a lot of the racial politics of the time. His attitudes are dated, though I suppose generally on the side of the angels, and he namedrops a town that I am familiar with, which may be the strangest part of all (to me).
The Doorbell Rang, Rex Stout: This time Wolfe and Archie take on J. Edgar Hoover's FBI, and it is very clear just how much Stout disapproves of the FBI's methods of that era. Deeply amusing and also very re-readable.
Death of a Doxy, Rex Stout: In this one, which is pretty tightly written, Wolfe and Archie must assist in exonerating one of their usual working partners when he comes under suspicion of killing a certain prostitute he had been seeing. Worth a reread.
The Father Hunt, Rex Stout: A young woman hires Archie and Wolfe to figure out who her father is, which they contrive to do against very long odds. They also manage to solve the mystery of her mother's murder while they're at it.
Rereads:
Sparrow Hill Road, Seanan McGuire
Hercule Poirot's Christmas, Agatha Christie
...It's easy to read a lot when your laptop is down and you have a four-day weekend.
(no subject)
Date: 25 June 2014 19:44 (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 26 June 2014 14:33 (UTC)