A Family Affair (novel)

infobox Book |
name = A Family Affair
title_orig =
translator =


image_caption =
author = Rex Stout
cover_artist = Mel Williamson
country = United States
language = English
series = Nero Wolfe
genre = Detective fiction
publisher = Viking Press
release_date = May 1975
media_type = Print (Hardcover)
pages = 152 pp. (first edition)
isbn = ISBN 0670306118
preceded_by = Please Pass the Guilt
followed_by = Death Times Three "A Family Affair" is the final Nero Wolfe detective novel by Rex Stout, published by the Viking Press in 1975.

Plot summary

Nero Wolfe's last recorded case. Wolfe never works without a well-heeled client and a sizable fee, but when a bomb rocks his brownstone, killing his favorite waiter from his favorite restaurant, the world's greatest gourmet takes it as a personal affront. What kind of unsavory killer commits murder within ten feet of a legendary detective? It's a question Wolfe will go to heroic lengths to answer. But even as he and Archie uncover an unappetizing brew of conspiracy and lies, the killer serves up a second helping of homicide... and Wolfe is left to face the most unpalatable truth of his career.

For much of the story, Stout leads the reader to believe that the central murder mystery is related to the Watergate scandal. Ultimately, Wolfe discovers that the killer is one of his closest associates, a character who had been appearing in Nero Wolfe mysteries for over forty years.

Reviews and commentary

*"Time" — Poirot: deceased. Maigret: retired. Martin Beck, Commander Gideon, Inspector West: gone, all gone with the recent deaths of their creators. Of the old breed, only Nero Wolfe is still doing business at the same old stand, his orchidaceous town house in Manhattan, backed and fronted as always by the ineffable Archie Goodwin. Like his corpulent hero, author Rex Stout, 89, continues to confound the actuarial tables — and his followers. In this latest outing, Stout ups the stakes of the game he plays with readers. Three-quarters of the way through, narrator Archie realizes the identity of the criminal and concedes, "You probably knew a while back." He is, in his own term, "grandstanding"; even veteran aficionados will be hypnotized by this witty, complex mystery. For lagniappe, Stout provides a delicious red herring—the case's tenuous connection to Watergate. Says Wolfe: "I would have given all my orchids—well, most of them — to have [had] an effective hand in the disclosure of the malfeasance of Richard Nixon." He announces that he drafted but did not send a letter to Leon Jaworski, offering his services. Pity the mail never went through. The national agony might have been avoided—well, most of it. [ [http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,913656-2,00.html Notable] ; "Time", November 3, 1975; retrieved 7-2-08]

Release details

*2006, USA, The Audio Partners Publishing Corp., Mystery Masters ISBN 1572704942 January 9, 2006, audio CD (unabridged, read by Michael Prichard)
*1993, USA, Bantam Crimeline ISBN 0553241222 January 1, 1993, paperback
*1975, USA, Viking ISBN 0670306118 second printing September 8, 1975; third printing November 1975

References