narrator of all Wolfe stories Carlo Maffei — Italian-American metalworker whose disappearance forces Wolfe to begin working Maria Maffei — Sister of Carlo Maffei and friend of Fred Durkin's wife Peter Oliver Barstow — President of Holland University (fictional), whose bizarre death on a golf course is the key to the mystery Lawrence Barstow — Peter Barstow's son, who was with him when he died Ellen Barstow — Widow of Peter Barstow Sarah Barstow — Peter Barstow's daughter who graduated from Smith College E.D. Kimball — Grain broker who was one of the foursome when Barstow died Manuel Kimball — E.D. Kimball's son who was also one of the foursome, and also an aviator Dr. Nathaniel Bradford — Family physician of the Barstows and friend of Peter since childhood Anna Fiore — Cleaning girl at Carlo Maffei's boarding house Saul Panzer, Fred Durkin, Orrie Cather and Bill Gore — Freelance detectives employed by Wolfe Reviews and commentary Isaac Anderson, The New York Times Book Review — Several times in the course of this story Nero Wolfe is called a genius. The term is painfully inadequate, but it is the best that the dictionary offers ... The only thing that he does not know at the very beginning is the identity of the murderer. That he is to learn later, and the method he chooses for revealing his knowledge to the authorities provides a sensational concluding chapter for a story that abounds in surprises. Nero Wolfe is so fat that locomotion is next to impossible for him. For his fact-finding he depends upon his secretary, Archie, and it is the latter who tells the tale. The author has done a clever bit of work in making the narrative style employed by Archie correspond so exactly to his character and attainments as they are revealed in little touches here and there throughout the book. Jacques Barzun and Wendell Hertig Taylor, A Catalogue of Crime — The first and longest of the Nero Wolfe stories, in which all the familiar characters and their habits get established. The murder is done by means of a golf club—the implement, not the membership—and it entangles a college president, a baby, some Italian nondescripts, and much philosophizing by Wolfe and futilizing by the police. Frederick Isaac, In the Beginning: First Novels in Mystery Series — Rex Stout's Fer-de-Lance, then, may be said to have heralded the beginning