Death Times Three by Nero Wolfe

(17. – 1042.) Death Times Three by Nero Wolfe - A trio of Wolfe stoies, novellas, written at different stages of Stout’s career.

In Bitter End (1940) Wolfe is barely coping with Frtiz Brenner being sick and out of the kitchen when his refined palate is assaulted by contaminated liver patê. After spitting out the offending patê, some of which lands upon Archie, he states the tin from Tingley’s Tidbits was poisoned.

As Archie prepares a sample to be analyzed a young woman, Amy Duncan, calls at the brownstone  to request an unsolicited interview with Wolfe. Ready to provoke the big man Archie allows her into the office.

Archie, at least, is startled when she identifies the offending contaminant as quinine. She has come to seek Wolfe’s help in determining who is sabotaging the liver patê. Arthur Tingley, the owner of Tingley’s Tidbits, is her uncle.

Miss Duncan, after a falling out with her uncle, had been working as a secretary for Leonard Cliff, the vice-president of Provisions and Beverage Corporation, whom Mr. Tingley suspected of adulterating his product.

Unfortunately, she has little money. With a satisfactory balance in his bank account Wolfe tells her she has something better than money. She is puzzled. Wolfe says she has luck for he was already determined to find out who poisoned the patê.

Soon after Archie starts investigating he finds Mr. Tingley with his throat cut in his office. Archie spirits an unconscious Miss Duncan from the building and, after a tussle, also takes Mr. Cliff with him.

As the police flounder about with conflicting evidence on the time of death Wolfe finds the flaw in the killer’s coverup of the crime.

(Bitter End was actually a re-write of a Tecumseh Fox story. Stout was enticed to do the re-write by a publisher who offered him twice the amount for a Wolfe story that he would pay for a Fox story.)

The second story, Frame-Up for Murder (1958), sees Archie picked up by an attractive young woman, Flora Gallant, who wants him to like her enough that he will arrange a meeting with Wolfe. Her charming French accent adds to her allure. Not surprisingly, the strategem works and she is soon in the office.

She is concerned over the influence Bianca Voss has upon her brother, Alec Gallant, a successful designer of haute couture. She is sure that if Wolfe questions Voss he will learn evidence that would break the hold on her brother.

In a clever scene Wolfe is talking to Voss on the phone when she is attacked and killed.

Soon thereafter Inspector Cramer is storming the brownstone. They deflate his bluster with a typed statement of what happened signed by both of them.

In that era of the dial telephone Wolfe and Archie can determine whethe a number has been called by the length of each number being turned. Such detecting is now an anachronism.

There is an attempt to flummox Wolfe. It is a foolhardy soul who attempts to deceive him. He instantly sees through the subterfuge. Cold implacable logic takes him to the killer.

(Frame-Up For Murder is also a re-write. It is an extended version of Murder is No Joke. An important difference between the stories is the lovely young Flora of Frame-Up for Murder was a middle aged frump in Murder is No Joke).

The third, Assault on a Brownstone (1961, begins on a cold New York morning as Hattie Annis, gray and fading and feisty, leaves a box with Archie who convinces Wolfe to see her. Ms. Annis and Wolfe share a distrust of the police. That she claims to have something that will draw a reward is intriguing. 

A short time later, Tamiris (Tammy) Baxter, a comely aspiring actress, inquires about her landlady, Miss Annis. She is concerned as Miss Annis rarely leaves her home.

Miss Annis does not return for her appointment. After Wolfe dines on chestnut soup, to which tarragon has been added for the first time, Archie learns Miss Annis has been killed by a hit-and-run driver.

Feeling he betrayed her by sending her away while Wolfe was with his orchids Archie is determined to investigate her death.

After authorities, with the aid of a search warrant, thoroughly check the brownstone an outraged Nero Wolfe takes over the investigation:

“Not anymore. Now it’s mine. My house has been invaded, my privacy has been outraged, and my belongings have been pawed. Sit down.”

(Assault on a Brownstone is involved in another re-write. It was the first version of the story. The re-written story was published as The Counterfeiter’s Knife. The character of Miss Annis was modeled on his aunt, Alice Todhunter Bradley, who, among her adventures in the American West, was schoolmistress to the “kin” of Brigham Young.)