To accompany my prompt on how photography can influence our writing, I’m recommending a mystery novella in which photography plays a major role, “Easter Parade” by Rex Stout from the collection, And Four to Go.
In 1950’s New York City, Nero Wolfe, 275 lbs. of gourmet tastes and detective genius, also cultivates ten thousand orchids in rooftop greenhouses on his brownstone. When he hears that another amateur orchid grower, Millard Bynoe, has achieved a Vanda orchid with pure pink coloring, he must see it. Now. Wolfe also learns that Mr. Bynoe won’t display the orchid until he enters it into an international flower show, but his wife is wearing several blossoms as her corsage for Easter Sunday services.
When Wolfe tells his right hand man, Archie Goodwin, about this, Archie tells Wolfe to take a camera to Fifth Avenue on Sunday morning with thousands of other photographers crammed together to take photos of wealthy people leaving church services on Easter. Archie knows Wolfe will never do this because his boss dislikes shaking hands with people, much less pressing up against strangers. But Archie states:
“Instead of scowling or growling, or both, he was merely nodding thoughtfully, as if the idea of rubbing elbows, not to mention other parts of his anatomy, with his fellow beings in the Fifth Avenue Easter mob wasn’t repellent at all. Envy broadens a man.”
Wolfe asks Archie to hire someone to steal the blossoms off Mrs. Bynoe as she leaves the church. Archie contacts a petty thief he knows, Tabby. Archie also attends the Easter Parade with a camera, positioning himself outside the Bynoe’s church with hundreds of other photographers. When Mrs. Bynoe has an attack on the sidewalk after leaving the church, Tabby moves in and swipes the flowers. Mrs. Bynoe dies, and the autopsy reveals its strychnine poisoning, delivered through a needle, possibly fired from a camera that had been altered to be a weapon.
Wolfe is desperate to uncover the murderer before the depths of his orchid envy are revealed and the cops figure out who hired Tabby.
Not only is a camera suspected of being the murder weapon, the photographs Archie takes Easter morning become the key clue to solving the mystery. The novella includes four photos readers can study to see if they can spot what Wolfe notices.
I always enjoy reading mysteries set at specific holidays. “Easter Parade” is the only one I’ve found that takes place during Easter and incorporates a unique feature of how Easter was celebrated long ago. Mr. Stout wrote the story in the 1950’s, so the description of the Easter Parade is from a person of that time. I love how the novella gives readers a peek into history.
What books have you read that uses photography as a key element?
For more prompts and tips from this month’s theme of using other arts in our writing, click here.
