The Rubber Band

Rex Stout

2/8/1999

When I was a child, my father was always reading Rex Stout's Nero Wolfe mysteries. I finally have gotten around to reading one myself. Nero Wolfe is quite a character, isn't he? He is a genius detective that never leaves his home and spends hours a day tending his orchids. He has his assistant, Archie Goodwin, and others do his footwork for him.

This novel has all sorts of unconnected events that finally tie together. The president of Seaboard Products wants to hire Mr. Wolfe to investigate an embezzlement within his company. He is certain that the lady accused did not commit the theft.

Meanwhile, this same lady comes to Nero Wolfe a few hours later with a story of debt owed by an English nobleman saved from lynching. She wants him to help collect the outstanding debt.

The Rubber Band had been a group of young men in 1895 that had grouped in the West. The Englishman had been part of the band in his wild youth. He had promised a portion of his future wealth to help escape a promised lynching. Now the remaining members of the Rubber Band are collecting the debt. Yet they are being murdered as Mr. Wolfe is considering what case he will take.

This novel holds your interest. Since it is a Nero Wolfe mystery, you know the loose ends tie together eventually. But darned if I could figure out how until almost the end! Of course, in this one Nero Wolfe also says part of his final solution is theory, but can probably be proven.

Although out of print, you can learn more about this book at

Fer-de-Lance
The League of the Frightened Men
The Rubber Band
The Red Box
Too Many Cooks
Some Buried Caeser
Over My Dead Body
Where There's a Will
Black Orchids
Not Quite Dead Enough
The Silent Speaker
Too Many Women
And Be a Villain
The Second Confession
Trouble in Triplicate
In the Best Families
Three Doors to Death
Curtains for Three
Murder by the Book
Triple Jeopardy
Prisoner's Base
The Golden Spiders
Three Men Out
The Black Mountain
Before Midnight
Three Witnesses
Might As Well Be Dead
If Death Ever Slept
Three for the Chair
Champagne for One
And Four to Go
Plot It Yourself
Too Many Clients
Three at Wolfe's Door
The Final Deduction
Gambit
Homicide Trinity
The Mother Hunt
A Right to Die
Trio for Blunt Instruments
The Doorbell Rang
The Death of a Doxy
The Father Hunt
Death of a Dude
Please Pass the Guilt
A Family Affair
Death Times Three