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    A Family Affair
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    A Family Affair
    Unavailable
    A Family Affair
    Audiobook5 hours

    A Family Affair

    Written by Rex Stout

    Narrated by Michael Prichard

    3.5/5

    ()

    Currently unavailable

    Currently unavailable

    About this audiobook

    Nero Wolfe's last recorded case! Wolfe never works without a well-heeled client and a sizable fee, but when a bomb racks 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 a most unpalatable truth.

    "It is always a treat to read a Nero Wolfe mystery. The man has entered our folklore."-New York Times Book Review
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherPenguin Random House Audio
    Release dateJan 2, 2007
    ISBN9781415937648
    Unavailable
    A Family Affair
    Author

    Rex Stout

    Rex Todhunter Stout (1886 – 1975) was an American crime writer, best known as the creator of the larger-than-life fictional detective Nero Wolfe and assistant Archie Goodwin. The Nero Wolfe corpus was nominated Best Mystery Series of the Century at Bouchercon 2000, the world's largest mystery convention, and Rex Stout was nominated Best Mystery Writer of the Century. Rex passed away in 1975.

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    Reviews for A Family Affair

    3.5/5

    134 ratings11 reviews

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    Review must be at least 10 words

    • 3/5
      A waiter ends up dead in Wolfe's home. Not the strongest plot, but still passable.
    • 4/5
      Many readers had serious problems with this 46th of Rex Stout's Nero Wolfe mysteries. I didn't have the same problems. The killer was believable to me, unlike those other readers, but I did feel that the motivation wasn't built up throughout the book. Rather it was sprung on me at the end, almost as an afterthought. And Archie saying (more than once) that he supposes I knew who the killer was from an early stage is ridiculous. The end was as much of a surprise to me as it was to him.
      So for the lack of development of motivation and back story - and not for the identity of the killer - only 3 stars on this one for me.
      EDIT ON RE-READ
      As I've gone back through more of my Nero Wolfe's, I rescind my surprise. Archie was right (as usual) and I should have known.
    • 3/5
      A Family Affair (1975) by Rex Stout. This mid seventies addition to the long running series also marks the penultimate Stout written Wolfe story. I can safely recommend this series to any reader who has yet to dabble.The “Family” in the affair is Nero Wolfe’s collection of detectives including Saul Panzer and Archie Goodwin. There is no paying client, the body of wolf’s favorite waiter is discovered in Wolfe’s brownstone and there are enough of twists and turns to make a roller coaster designer jealous.My favorite section is when Nero and Archie end up in the slammer. Not the best in the series, and written at the end of Mr. Stout’s career, but a nice, different mystery and fulfilling as it stands.
    • 1/5
      A favorite waiter surprises Archie one night and says he fears he'll be killed. Archie leaves him in a guest bedroom to sleep until the great detective, Nero Wolfe, wakes up. But only minutes after Archie goes to bed himself, the house is shaken. A bomb has gone off, and the waiter is dead.

      So begins another mystery, set in 1970s New York and focusing on the sedentary gastronomer and genius, Nero Wolfe, and his bff and right hand man, Archie Goodwin. The mystery is solved through unbelievably circumstantial clues, there's very little motive for the murders, and there's a completely unnecessary red herring that takes up a good half of the book. The other half is taken up by Stout's repetitive stock phrases: men are constantly sending their eyes round the room, palming the arms of their chair, walking exactly three streps into the room...Stout tells every single motion in absurd detail, none of which has anything whatsoever to do with the mystery or even much to do with character development. Between the unsatisfactory mystery, the stock phrases and unnecessary details padding out the slender plot, and Archie's unbearable sexism (he makes a joke at one point that the only way to get a feminist to listen is to rape her--which she'd like, btw), I really hated this book by the end.
    • 3/5
      Better than I was expecting. It is still very light and a quick read - nice to read between more demanding books. Better than a boring old romance but still pretty thin on the ground for depth and richness
    • 3/5
      I've read all the Rex Stout Nero Wolfe novels, and thought it would be fun to listen to some while doing other things.

      Unfortunately, if one is familiar with the novels, and the canon in general, this audiobook is likely to be a disappointment. It's not the story -- Stout's novels are always a treat -- but this reader, and whoever cast him, did not understand the characters in the series. His Wolfe wasn't too bad, but, sadly, Archie was off by a mile -- diction, timing, tone, humor, all missed the boat.

      So, much as I love the series, I won't be listening to any more, as the narrator is so far removed from the characters in the book that it was actively grating to hear.

      If one is not very familiar with the series and the characters it might not be so annoying, but, in that case, this is not the book one should be starting with, anyways.

      Sad.
    • 3/5
      There is no question that Rex Stout was a master. I have read most of them and listened to the rest, all ably read by one of my favorite readers, Michael Pritchard.

      This was Stout’s last novel, released in 1975. Some reviewers have suggested it’s not up to his earlier work. I disagree, although it’s a little jarring to find Richard Nixon as a central figure and tape recorders and Watergate. It’s clear Stout thought Nixon as head of state had perpetrated a great flummery on the people. I wonder if most of the remarks will be totally lost on anyone born after 1970. Lots of aspersions regarding the people and actions of the events surrounding Watergate.

      Nothing outrages Wolfe more than when a murder is committed under his nose. Worse yet when it’s in his house. A waiter from his favorite restaurant is blown up in the guest room. Soon Wolfe is up to his neck in Watergate related characters. Stout’s disdain for the players is obvious. Stout, by this time, was in his eighties, and any political commentary was quite unusual for his characters. But the usual banter is present and it’s hard not to love a character who hates people dropping quotations, especially when they quote from Sir Thomas More, since Wolfe always maintained that More had slandered Richard III.

      Several Amazon reviewers suggested this book was not up to his usual high quality. I beg to differ. It has the wonderfully precise use of language; Archie is still the wisecracking sidekick, and this final book really puts Wolfe to the test. Wolfe, Archie, Saul, Fred and Orrie all wind up in jail for the weekend (for obstruction of justice, paralleling the five Nixon characters,) Wolfe leaves his house more than he ever had, and there are complexities enough to keep Wolfe fans happy.

      Given the ending, I would not be surprised if Stout had a premonition this might be his last book.
    • 3/5
      Despite this being a short mystery it certainly had more twists than the usual Rex Stout creation. Told from the point of view of his assistant, Artie, the mystery begins in Wolfe's own home when his favorite waiter is murdered in his spare room. It's unheard of for a crime to happen right under his nose. Another strange development is Wolfe's uncharacteristic emotional outbursts. This is a case he takes very personally - enough to call it "a family affair" and enough for him to spend a night in jail (this coming from a man who never even likes to leave his home)! Because the murder happens in his own home he is more than determined to find the killer before the authorities do, despite not having a client. Typical of other Stout mysteries Wolfe has his beloved orchids and by-the-minute routines and mannerisms. What is different about this particular story is the inclusion of political commentary concerning Nixon and Watergate. Stout displays his displeasure with the political happenings in Washington through Wolfe.
    • 3/5
      The plot begins very slowly, with a lot of unimportant characters to through the reader off the trail. As Stout's last Nero Wolfe story, released one year before his death, it seems as if he has lost his touch. Since the novella was written at the height of the Watergate scandal there are plenty, probably too many, references to Pres. Nixon and other Watergate personalities. The writing also seems off when Wolfe, Saul, Fred, and Orrie do some uncharacteristic things. The book's title is significant.
    • 2/5
      A weak ending; endure it as a milestone, then consign it to reading history and return to the earlier books in the series. Contradictory behaviour and terse cynicism from the regular characters, not to mention the far-fetched methods of the killer and the unlikely conclusion. Not worthy of Wolfe or Archie, in my opinion. Readable (hence the two stars), but not enjoyable.
    • 3/5
      My least favorite Wolfe story. I hate the ending.