Not Quite Dead Enough – A Nero Wolfe Novella

Two Nero Wolfe novellas for the price of one! The first is “Not Quite Dead Enough” which came out in 1942 and lent its name to the collection, and the second is “Booby Trap” from 1944.

The background for both is the the American war effort in WW2. The U.S. army wants Nero Wolfe urgently, but the arrogant, gourmandizing, sedentary sleuth refuses the call to duty. It takes his perambulatory confidential assistant, Archie Goodwin, that’s now Major Goodwin if you please, to titillate Wolfe’s taste for crime. The two malevolent morsels deal with a corpse that won’t rest in peace and a sinister ‘accident’ involving national security. So as Goodwin lays the bait on the wrong side of the law, Wolfe sets a trap to catch a wily killer. Or two?

“It’s always a treat to read a Nero Wolfe mystery. The man has entered our folklore.” (The New York Times)

Librarian’s note: this entry is for the two novella collection, and also for “Not Quite Dead Enough” on its own (characters, settings, etc.). There is a Goodreads entry elsewhere for “Booby Trap” where such information can be found.