2019 reread:
3.5* for this mid-series Nero Wolfe book. ( )

4/9/22

"What do you think of this case I got?" Wolfe considered. "It seems a little hazy."
"Yeah, that's why I came to you. I saw it was a swell case if I handled it right. The car was a Caddy, a dark gray fifty-two Caddy. The man looked mean, but he looked like dough, he might have two or three Caddies. The woman did too. She wasn't as old as my mother, but I guess I can't go by that because my mother has done a lot of hard work, and I bet she never did work. She had a scratch on her face, on her left cheek, and her face was all twisted saying to me, 'Help, get a cop,' but, thinking it over, she was a good looker. She had big gold spiders for earrings, spiders with their legs stretched out. Pure gold."

Pretty standard Stout fare, but with a little glimmer of more human feeling near the beginning. ( )

Good lean read.

This is maybe the third Nero Wolfe mystery I've read. Although the characters are of mid 20th Century New York the stories hold up very well. If you're looking for a good, well written mystery without melodrama or Harlequin romance drudgery then, this is the book for you. ( )