Review of “Christmas Party” by Rex Stout

I titled this a review of “Christmas Party” by Rex Stout, instead of a book review, because it’s a short story and might even qualify as a novella. So I can’t really call it a book review. But even in its short form, it’s one of my favorite Christmas stories because it’s from my all-time favorite mystery series, the Nero Wolfe mysteries. Never heard of him? Allow me to introduce you.

Armchair Detective Meets Hard-boiled P.I.

Nero Wolfe and his faithful, often exasperated, bodyguard-secretary Archie Goodwin, debuted in 1934. Mr. Stout brilliantly combined the two main styles of mystery fiction of the time: the intellectual detective, like Sherlock Holmes, and the tough-guy private investigator, like Sam Spade and Philip Marlowe. Nero Wolfe is the Sherlock Homes side. Weighting a seventh of a ton, he rarely leaves his brownstone home in New York City and never for the detective work that supports his luxurious lifestyle. The exorbitant fees he charges pays for his gourmet tastes, voracious reading, and the ten thousand orchids he grows in a greenhouse on the fourth floor.

While Wolfe sits back and uses his genius, Archie Goodwin is the two-fisted assistant with a terrific sense of humor who carries out his boss’s instructions. It could be anything from cajoling a witness to come to the brownstone for an interview with Wolfe to collecting evidence and heckling cops.

When Mr. Stout died in 1975, the series, according to Wikipedia, consisted of 33 novels and 41 short stories and novellas.

Christmas and Nero Wolfe

“Christmas Party” is one of my favorite Nero Wolfe stories because it shows a more human side to the genius detective. Archie informs Wolfe that he can’t take Wolfe to meet another orchid grower on Long Island because he’s been invited to an office Christmas party. When Wolfe tells him he’ll have to cancel his plans, Archie produces a marriage certificate and say he has to go because his fiancee has invited him.

At the party, Archie chats with Margot Dickey, the woman who invited him to the party, and her colleagues at the interior design firm where she works. When the owner, Kurt Bottweil is poisoned, the cops are sure the guilty party is the man dressed as Santa who was hired to tend bar. No one knows who Santa was because Kurt hired him, and Santa disappeared during all the commotion when Kurt collapsed.

When Archie returns to the brownstone, it becomes clear that he and Wolfe have to figure out who actually killed Kurt.

And Four to Go is the book in which “Christmas Party” originally appeared, but it’s a popular Christmas mystery and can be found in many anthologies, like The Big Book of Christmas Mysteries.

What kind of detective do you prefer: the armchair detective or the hard-boiled one?

For posts on Christmas, writing, and stories, click here.

December 12, 2024 1

Favorite Christmas Tradition

What’s a favorite Christmas tradition in your family? I grew up with a lot of traditions. Both of my grandparents lived close to us after I was four years old, so we could visit them both at Christmas. Every Christmas Eve, we would drive to my dad’s parents’ house, have supper, and open my grandparents’ gifts to us kids. On Christmas morning, we opened our gifts from Santa at home. Then we’d go to my mom’s parents for a Christmas feast at lunch.

When I married, I had to merge my traditions with the ones my husband grew up with. Figuring out whether we would have a live or fake tree was a big decision in our marriage, which I wrote about in a humorous essay for the hardback version of Christmas fiction off the beaten path.

Now that we have kids, we’re developing our own traditions, such as watching the 1983 Christmas special, The Best Christmas Pageant Ever, on Christmas Eve after we get home from the Christmas Eve service. My youngest has assigned himself the role of doing our outside decorations. Our front yard glows with lights everywhere and an army of inflatables, all connected with a maze of power cords. I really want to write a Christmas crime story in which the bad guy tries to escape the law at the climax but foolishly runs through someone’s front yard that’s decorated like mine and gets tripped up in all the cords.

So what’s one of your favorite Christmas traditions? Writers, have you used one of your traditions in a story?

For more Christmas prompts, click here.

December 9, 2024 1

Book Review of Murder for Christmas

Since it’s my favorite Christmas mystery novel, here’s my book review of Murder for Christmas by Agatha Christie. It’s also known under the titles Hercule Poirot’s Christmas and A Holiday for Murder–for some reason when many of Ms. Christie’s books crossed the pond to the U.S., publishers changed the title.

It has all the ingredients you’d expect in a mystery written in 1939–a large, wealthy family riddle with difficult relationships and ugly backstories, a patriarch so nasty that even the kindest person in the family would have a reason to kill him, a seemingly impossible murder, and a brilliant detective. Then Ms. Christie layers over all of that the trimmings of Christmas.

Simeon Lee has asked all his children, most of whom are estranged, their spouses, and one grandchild to come to the family estate for a tradition, English Christmas. All his relations have different reactions to the old man’s invitation and reasons for accepting. Once the family is gathered around, they soon learn Simeon Lee hasn’t mellowed with age. He’s still the vengeful, manipulative, ladies’ man that he’s always been.

When he’s found dead from a cutthroat amid the broken furniture of a terrific fight in his locked bedroom, the local chief constable brings his Christmas house guest, Hercule Poirot, into the investigation.

This is one of Agatha Christie’s best mysteries. The clues are well laid out, the unveiling of the criminal stunning, and but best of all for me, her characters seem much more like real people in this book. Simeon Lee has four sons, each one with their own personalities. His daughter-in-laws are distinct individuals.

The family also acts more like a real-life family. Simeon had not met before his young adult granddaughter Pilar, who had been raised in Spain. When his will is read after he dies, the family finds he left nothing to Pilar. Because everyone had seen that Simeon liked his only grandchild, three of the brothers and their wives decide to take money from their inheritance and give it to Pilar. They know Simeon would have changed his will to leave her something if he’d lived longer. Of course, just like in a real family, someone objects. George, an MP, with an expensive wife refuses. That conflict seems so natural to me. A family is made up of all kinds people–generous, greedy, kind, selfish. It gives a traditional mystery, which can seem very artificial, a nice veneer of reality.

If you read mysteries, what are some of your favorites?

For more recommendations of Christmas stories, click here.

December 5, 2024 0

What’s Your Favorite Christmas Story?

In December, JPC Allen Writes will be all about Christmas. My prompts will be ones for starting conversations. So what’s your favorite Christmas story? The ones you have to read every year because the season doesn’t seem quite Christmas-y enough if you don’t read them. I’ll be reviewing some of my favorites on Thursdays this month, so I’ll mention different ones here.

From the Christmas mystery anthology, Silent Nights

“The Case Is Altered” by Margery Allingham. Amateur sleuth Albert Campion stumbles onto suspicious activities during a Christmas house party at a country estate.
“The Necklace of Pearls” by Dorothy L. Sayers. Another amateur sleuth, Lord Peter Wimsey, at another Christmas party at another country estate. This time, a pearl necklace turns up missing while the guest play party games.

From The Big Book of Christmas Mysteries

“Gold, Frankincense, and Murder” by Catherine Aird. I like this mystery set around World War II because it takes place during a neighborhood party. I’ve never been to a house party on an English estate, but I have been to a Christmas party with friends. Although no one ends up poisoned at the parties I’ve attended.
“A Scandal in Winter” by Gillian Linscott. This Sherlock Holmes story is a sequel to “A Scandal in Bohemia”. Set at a Swiss resort around 1900, the story is told from the point of view of a young girl who may have witnessed a murder the year before at Christmas.
“Three Dot Po” by Sara Paretsky. I enjoyed meeting V.I. Warshawski, a female P.I., in this modern Christmas tale.
“The Price of Light” by Ellis Peters. I’ve never been to medieval England either, but this story transports me to a Christmas at an abbey where Brother Cadfael tries to solve the theft of silver candlesticks from the altar to the Virgin Mary.
“Killer Christian”by Andrew Klavan. A professional killer decides to reform, bringing him into a confrontation with another killer, known as The Death. It may be hard to believe, but this story has a very moving ending.

For prompts for Christmas stories, click here.

December 2, 2024 1

Month: December 2024