(pb; 1937: third book in the forty-six-book Nero Wolfe detective series)
From the back cover
“What do a Wild West lynching
and a respected English nobleman have in common? On the surface, absolutely
nothing. But when a young man hires his services, it becomes Nero Wolfe’s job
to look deeper and find the connection. A forty-year-old pact, a
five-thousand-mile search and a million-dollar murder are all linked to an
international scandal that could rebound on the great detective and his
partner, Archie, with fatal abruptness.”
Review
Rubber Band has the erudite, stubborn Wolfe reluctantly harboring a pretty fugitive (Clara Fox) who’s suspected not only of monetary theft but murder—and those seeking her are not limited to wanting to arrest her. While the cops (often led by the sometimes-friendly Inspector Kramer) and dubious characters try to pound down Wolfe’s door, Archie Goodwin and Wolfe’s reliable butler Fritz Brenner actively form a further bulwark to the urgent invaders while Wolfe susses out the details of Fox’s three-prong difficulties, an effort that should earn him an impressive, calculated payday.
Rubber might be my favorite Wolfe novel thus far. It’s dead-on, from its characterizations, its editing and clever writing, and often laugh-out-loud smart dialogue. In some ways, Rubber feels like the crystallization of the first phase Stout’s iconic detective (considering there are forty-six Stout-penned Wolfe works), and it’s a great entry not only in Wolfe series but the mystery genre in general. Followed by The Red Box.
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