Title: Excellent!
Product review: One of the better late Nero Wolfe stories. I notice that the other reviewer (thus far) finds Wolfe irritating--of course, he's meant to be that way, which is why we are presented with Archie as Boswell to his ponderous Johnson, perhaps the best solution ever reached to the Dr. Watson problem. What is the Dr. Watson problem? The detective can only seem brilliant if his cards are hidden--but a 1st person narrative is the only way to really involve the reader in the mystery. Thus, the author provides an assistant to the great "Sherlock." The problem is that Dr. Watson figures often seem like idiots--we're unconvinced (in a few stories) that Holmes is a genius because only Watson could have missed the obvious. Archie is competent enough himself that we never doubt for a moment that Wolfe is truly a genius--and the dialogue between Archie and Wolfe is some of the best give-and-take ever written.
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