Might As Well Be Dead

Might As Well Be Dead (1956) (Nero Wolfe #27) by Rex Stout. Wolfe is hired by a man out of the midwest to find his estranged son. Seems there had been a mistake a dozen years before, now revealed as a robbery by someone else, and the father wishes to make amends. Wolfe takes the missing persons case after the police’s failure to locate the young man. Within a few days Wolfe finds him, only it seems he is on trial for murder.
As he can’t quite tell the repentant father this news, Wolfe makes the decision to have the verdict overturned by finding the true killer.
The book is much more subtle that what I have just described, but it is a great one. Wily, twisty and turny, alibis have to be destroyed, the murdered man’s work as a “consultant” pawed through and the truth to be uncovered. Trouble is, no one can quite say just what the dead man did for sure nor explain away what was found in the safety deposit box.
Well plotted with the signature banter between Archie and Nero, with the complete complement of Wolfe’s pack of detectives, and a rising death toll, Might As Well Be Dead ranks as one of Stout’s best.
And, if you are going to be shut in during the Covid-19 outbreak, who better to stay inside with than that self-imposed hermit, Nero Wolfe? ( )

A father sets Wolfe to look for his missing son. They find him falsely convicted of murdering his lover's wife. The real murderer kills off several more people in his fight to cover everything up. ( )

One of his better efforts, really liked this one

Had read most of t on NY's eve and only a few pages today.

As another reviewer said, one reads fro Archie Goodwin, rather than Nero Wolfe himself, though both are interesting characters

Will read (and have ) more

Big Ship

1 January 2017 ( )

Ths may well be the first copy of this story that I read, before getting my own paperback (see other copy). I read this copy from the Wood Count Public Library 9bowling Green, Ohio) and later bought it when it was sold off ( )

I think this was one of the earliest Wolfe novels I read, along with The Golden Spiders. A wealthy Nebraska businessman hires Wolfe to find his son, whom he had thrown out on suspicion of theft (now proven unjustified) years before. Wolfe finds the son living in New York has just been convicted of murdering the husband of the woman he loves, but his lawyer believes he was framed. Wolfe, knowing te man's father would be much happier to find an innocent son, sets out to clear him. ( )