Triple Jeopardy

infobox Book |
name = Triple Jeopardy
title_orig =
translator =


author = Rex Stout
cover_artist = Bill English
country = United States
language = English
series = Nero Wolfe
genre = Detective fiction
publisher = Viking Press
release_date = March 21, 1952
media_type = Print (Hardcover)
pages = 216 pp. (first edition)
isbn = NA
preceded_by = Murder by the Book
followed_by = Prisoner's Base

"Triple Jeopardy" is a collection of Nero Wolfe mystery novellas by Rex Stout, published by the Viking Press in 1952. Itself collected in the omnibus volume "Kings Full of Aces" (Viking 1969), the book comprises three stories that first appeared in "The American Magazine":

* "Home to Roost" (January 1952, as "Nero Wolfe and the Communist Killer")
* "The Cop-Killer" (February 1951, as "The Cop Killer")
* "The Squirt and the Monkey" (August 1951, as "See No Evil")

Home to Roost

A young man is poisoned shortly after confiding to his aunt that his objectionable advocacy of the Communist party is a front for his undercover work for the FBI.

The Cop-Killer

Tina and Carl Vardas, employees at the barbershop Archie Goodwin patronizes, are questioned by a policeman after a hit-and-run. When the Vardases flee to the brownstone and desperately ask Archie for help, their overreaction proves to be justified.

The Squirt and the Monkey

Archie becomes involved with gunplay at the unconventional and uncomfortably warm home of a syndicated cartoonist.

Adaptations

"A Nero Wolfe Mystery" (A&E Network)

"The Cop-Killer" was adapted for the second season of the A&E TV series "A Nero Wolfe Mystery" (2001–2002). Written by Jennifer Salt and directed by John R. Pepper, "Cop Killer" made its debut August 11, 2002, on A&E.

Timothy Hutton is Archie Goodwin; distinguished character actor Maury Chaykin is Nero Wolfe. Other members of the cast (in credits order) include Kari Matchett (Janet Stahl), Nicky Guadagni (Tina Vardas), Hrant Alianak (Carl Vardas), Bill Smitrovich (Inspector Cramer), James Tolkan (Ed Graboff), Colin Fox (Fritz Brenner), R.D. Reid (Sergeant Purley Stebbins), Boyd Banks (Jimmie Kirk), Ken Kramer (Joel Fickler), Robbie Rox (Philip), Angelo Tsarouchas (Flatfoot Cop) and Doug Lennox (Detective Jacob Wallen).

"A Nero Wolfe Mystery" is available on DVD from A&E Home Video. ISBN 076708893X

"Nero Wolfe" (CBC Radio)

"The Cop Killer" was adapted as the fourth episode of the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation's 13-part radio series "Nero Wolfe" (1982), starring Mavor Moore as Nero Wolfe and Don Francks as Archie Goodwin. Written by Ron Hartmann, the hour-long adaptation aired on CBC Stereo February 6, 1982.

"The Squirt and the Monkey" was adapted as the tenth episode of the CBC radio series. Written by Ron Hartmann, the hour-long episode aired March 20, 1982.

Publication history

"Home to Roost"

*1952, "The American Magazine", January 1952, as "Nero Wolfe and the Communist Killer"
*1970, "Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine" #314, January 1970, as "Nero Wolfe Devises a Stratagem"
*1974, "Ellery Queen's Anthology" #28, Fall–Winter 1974, as "Nero Wolfe Devises a Stratagem"

"The Cop-Killer"

*1951, "The American Magazine", February 1951, as "The Cop Killer"
*1952, "Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine" #100, March 1952, as "The Cop Killer"
*1954, "Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine", British edition #23, December 1954, as "The Cop Killer"
*1960, "Ellery Queen's Anthology" #1, 1960, as "The Cop Killer"
*1964, "Best Detective Stories 2", edited by Edmund Crispin; London: Faber and Faber, 1964
*1994, Burlington, Ontario: Durkin Hayes Publishing, DH Audio ISBN 0886467055 July 1994, audio cassette ("The Cop-Killer," unabridged, read by Saul Rubinek)

"The Squirt and the Monkey"

*1951, "The American Magazine", August 1951, as "See No Evil"
*1966, "Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine" #272, July 1966, as "The Dazzle Dan Murder Case"
*1972, "Ellery Queen's Anthology" #24, Fall–Winter 1972, as "The Dazzle Dan Murder Case
*1977, "Ellery Queen's Cops and Capers", edited by Ellery Queen; New York: Davis Publications ISBN 0895590018, 1977

"Triple Jeopardy"

*1952, New York: The Viking Press, March 21, 1952, hardcover:In his limited-edition pamphlet, "Collecting Mystery Fiction #9, Rex Stout's Nero Wolfe Part I", Otto Penzler describes the first edition of "Triple Jeopardy": "Yellow cloth, front cover and spine printed with black; rear cover blank. Issued in a black, white, and purple dust wrapper." [Penzler, Otto, "Collecting Mystery Fiction #9, Rex Stout's Nero Wolfe Part I" (2001, New York: The Mysterious Bookshop, limited edition of 250 copies), p. 28] :In April 2006, "Firsts: The Book Collector's Magazine" estimated that the first edition of "Triple Jeopardy" had a value of between $300 and $500. [Smiley, Robin H., "Rex Stout: A Checklist of Primary First Editions." "Firsts: The Book Collector's Magazine" (Volume 16, Number 4), April 2006, p. 34. The first edition "states 'First published…' on the copyright page."] :The far less valuable Viking book club edition may be distinguished from the first edition in three ways:::1. The dust jacket has "Book Club Edition" printed on the inside front flap, and the price is absent (first editions may be price clipped if they were given as gifts);
2. Book club editions are sometimes thinner and always taller (usually a quarter of an inch) than first editions; and
3. Book club editions are bound in cardboard, and first editions are bound in cloth (or have at least a cloth spine). [Penzler, Otto, "Collecting Mystery Fiction #9, Rex Stout's Nero Wolfe Part I", pp. 19–20]
*1952, New York: The Viking Press (Mystery Guild), July 1952, hardcover
*1952, London: Collins Crime Club, October 13, 1952, hardcover
*1957, New York: Bantam #A-1631, July 1957, paperback
*1969, New York: The Viking Press, "Kings Full of Aces: A Nero Wolfe Omnibus" (with "Too Many Cooks" and "Plot It Yourself"), January 28, 1969, hardcover
*1993, New York: Bantam Books (Rex Stout Library) ISBN 0553763075, April 1993, introduction by Aaron Elkins, paperback
*1997, Newport Beach, California: Books on Tape, Inc. ISBN 0736637486 July 21, 1997, audio cassette (unabridged, read by Michael Prichard)

References

External links

*imdb title|id=0394813|title=A Nero Wolfe Mystery — "Cop Killer"'
* [http://www.nerowolfe.org/nwm/nwm_s2_episodes/ck-home.htm "A Nero Wolfe Mystery" — "Cop Killer"] at The Wolfe Pack, official site of the Nero Wolfe Society