"If Death Ever Slept"

This week's Classic Mysteries podcast review subject is Rex Stout's 1957 Nero Wolfe mystery, "If Death Ever Slept." You can listen to the full podcast review here.

Archie Goodwin is more on display here than Nero Wolfe, whose armchair detection role consists of even more armchair than usual. Archie finds himself dispatched to a multi-millionaire's mansion, to find out whether the rich man's daughter-in-law is the "snake" her father-in-law says she is. There's also a little matter of industrial espionage going on, and all that is before the murders begin. For once, Wolfe finds himself relying far more than usual on Inspector Cramer for clues, something that makes neither of them very comfortable.

Archie is his usual wisecracking self and there are some interesting and enjoyable characters introduced here before Wolfe gets everyone together for one of his patented office confrontation scenes. As usual, it's good fun and worth the read.