Tæl på knapperne (1963)

I liked this story, but can someone explain to me why Stout's female characters feel so off. I think it's because the author writes more men than women so all his women really sound like men. The plot of this one centers on a baby. Recent widow Lucy Valdon come to Wolfe with a pickle of a problem. One night a few weeks earlier she recieved a call late at night telling her she had something outside her vestibule. Turns out to be a baby, with a note attached telling her the father was her late husband. Now she needs to find the mother, and of course that leads to nothing but trouble. ( )

This book is one of the few entries in the Nero Wolfe series in which it truly seems like Wolfe will be stymied. Of course, as any fan knows, that isn't going to happen but it takes quite long for him to figure out how to crack the case. On one hand, it was somewhat interesting to see all the dead ends Archie, with the assistance of Saul, Fred & Orrie, have to comb through but, on the other hand, it did make this book a bit less exciting. Still, it was an easy book to complete in an evening and Archie & Wolfe are always enjoyable to read about. ( )

I've read plenty of Nero and Archie short story homages, and I love them, but it's such an absolute pleasure to go back to the originals. So damn good. ( )

What can I see Nero Wolfe leaves the brownstone. . . of course it's good. In this outing Nero's client is a widow of 9 months who has a baby dropped on her doorstep and she wants to know who the mother is and by identifying the mother if it's possible that her former husband could be the father.

Good mystery but what keeps me reading these stories is all about Wolfe and Archie, how they interact and how others play out in their lives. ( )

Continuing with my Archie Goodwin flirtation, I would have to rank Mother Hunt below Silent Speaker, even though I love Archie's romance with the client, Lucy Valdon. I'm not sure if Stout's books hit a peak around the 1950s - this novel was published in the 60s - but I think I prefer the earlier stories, or Archie just fits better in less liberal decades.

Anyway! Wolfe and Archie are employed to find the mother of a baby left on a widowed woman's doorstep, with a note claiming that her late husband was the father. All well and good, but the solution requires a little too much waffle from the suspects (and Wolfe naturally) to explain, and I didn't buy into the whole 'women like babies' set-up that Wolfe devises to find the mother. Stick a puppy or a kitten in the pram, and I'd be right over, but a baby? And what would have happened if the mother just really didn't want anything more to do with the child she gave away? But this is Wolfe, and women are predictable, so she falls into the trap.

Lucy and Archie are cute together, and Archie more or less states openly that they are seeing each other - he spends the night with her on at least two occasions - which is enough to worry Wolfe, also cute. A good mystery for the team, but the revelation is a let-down. ( )