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Counterfeit for Murder
Counterfeit for Murder was first serialized as The Counterfeiter's Knife in three issues of The Saturday Evening Post andpublished later, in book form, in Homicide Trinity.
It starts whit Hattie Annis, the owner of a boardinghouse who doesn't like cops, showing up at Wolfe's door with a brown paper package containing stacks of $20 bills. She thinks that there could be a reward for returning the money and won't trust the cops with it. As Wolfe is busy with the orchids, she leaves the package with Archie and says she will come back later. When she returns, Hattie collapses at Wolfe’s doorstep. On her way back, a car swerved onto the sidewalk and hit her just enough to shake her up. Revived by Fritz's coffee, she tells Wolfe and Archie about the money, that turns out to be counterfeit.
Wolfe won't take Hattie as a client, but allows Archie to accompany her to the boardinghouse she owns, and investigate. There, Archie meets Hattie's three actors and a dancer—Hattie caters to stage people. The fifth boarder, however, is found dead on the floor with a kitchen knife in her chest. Hattie is carried away to be interrogated. Archie talks Wolfe into bailing her out, discovers that the dead woman was a Treasury agent, and at the end returns to the brownstone to find all concerned—boarders, Inspector Cramer, Sgt. Stebbins, Agent Leach, and Saul Panzer—in Wolfe’s office where the mystery is unraveled.
It starts whit Hattie Annis, the owner of a boardinghouse who doesn't like cops, showing up at Wolfe's door with a brown paper package containing stacks of $20 bills. She thinks that there could be a reward for returning the money and won't trust the cops with it. As Wolfe is busy with the orchids, she leaves the package with Archie and says she will come back later. When she returns, Hattie collapses at Wolfe’s doorstep. On her way back, a car swerved onto the sidewalk and hit her just enough to shake her up. Revived by Fritz's coffee, she tells Wolfe and Archie about the money, that turns out to be counterfeit.
Wolfe won't take Hattie as a client, but allows Archie to accompany her to the boardinghouse she owns, and investigate. There, Archie meets Hattie's three actors and a dancer—Hattie caters to stage people. The fifth boarder, however, is found dead on the floor with a kitchen knife in her chest. Hattie is carried away to be interrogated. Archie talks Wolfe into bailing her out, discovers that the dead woman was a Treasury agent, and at the end returns to the brownstone to find all concerned—boarders, Inspector Cramer, Sgt. Stebbins, Agent Leach, and Saul Panzer—in Wolfe’s office where the mystery is unraveled.
68 pages, Kindle Edition
First published December 6, 2012
40 people want to read
About the author
Rex Stout
838 books1,033 followersRex Todhunter Stout (1886–1975) was an American crime writer, best known as the creator of the larger-than-life fictional detective Nero Wolfe, described by reviewer Will Cuppy as "that Falstaff of detectives." Wolfe's assistant Archie Goodwin recorded the cases of the detective genius from 1934 (Fer-de-Lance) to 1975 (A Family Affair).
The Nero Wolfe corpus was nominated Best Mystery Series of the Century at Bouchercon 2000, the world's largest mystery convention, and Rex Stout was nominated Best Mystery Writer of the Century.
The Nero Wolfe corpus was nominated Best Mystery Series of the Century at Bouchercon 2000, the world's largest mystery convention, and Rex Stout was nominated Best Mystery Writer of the Century.
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
March 21, 2025
This is the moment that fans of Stout’s Nero Wolfe wait for:
Wolfe: "When four people are conversing in my presence and I know that one of them committed murder less than twelve hours ago, I would be a dolt to get no inkling at all. Look at you now, your reaction to what I just said. You are all staring at me. One of you opened his mouth to interrupt, but closed it. None of you glances at the others, or at any other. But I know that one of you is feeling the pinch. He is asking himself, are my eyes all right, how about my mouth, should I say something? He is aware, of course, that it will take more than an inkling to undo him, but an inkling can give me a start.""
Rex Stout has written scores of Nero Wolfe stories but he finds new ways to keep his main characters (Wolfe and Archie Goodwin) interesting and engaging. Among Goodwin’s talents (according to Wolfe) is his understanding of women. Wolfe has some very misogynist ideas and always needs Goodwin to help him understand the female in front of him. Here, he is confronted, in his brownstone residence, by an older woman that Archie has allowed to enter.
""Do you happen to know that all stage people are crazy?"
Wolfe grunted. "They have no monopoly."
"Maybe not, but theirs is a special kind. I'm not saying I like them, but they give me a feeling. My father owned a theater. My house is only an eight-minute walk from Times Square, and I only need one room and a kitchen, so they can live there whether they can pay or not. Five of them are living there now-three men and two girls-and they use the kitchen. They're supposed to make their beds and keep their rooms decent, and 152 Rex Stout some of them do. I never go in their rooms. My room is the second floor front-"
"If you please." Wolfe was curt. "To the point."
"I'll get there, Falstaff. Let the lady talk." She took a sip. "Good coffee."
Hattie runs a rooming house for actors and “one of them committed murder less than twelve hours ago.” She is the most difficult “client” that Wolfe has had to handle. From her “no nonsense” approach to Wolfe (who else will call him Falstaff?) to her unusual demands, this is a special story.
A satisfactory resolution.
3.5
Wolfe: "When four people are conversing in my presence and I know that one of them committed murder less than twelve hours ago, I would be a dolt to get no inkling at all. Look at you now, your reaction to what I just said. You are all staring at me. One of you opened his mouth to interrupt, but closed it. None of you glances at the others, or at any other. But I know that one of you is feeling the pinch. He is asking himself, are my eyes all right, how about my mouth, should I say something? He is aware, of course, that it will take more than an inkling to undo him, but an inkling can give me a start.""
Rex Stout has written scores of Nero Wolfe stories but he finds new ways to keep his main characters (Wolfe and Archie Goodwin) interesting and engaging. Among Goodwin’s talents (according to Wolfe) is his understanding of women. Wolfe has some very misogynist ideas and always needs Goodwin to help him understand the female in front of him. Here, he is confronted, in his brownstone residence, by an older woman that Archie has allowed to enter.
""Do you happen to know that all stage people are crazy?"
Wolfe grunted. "They have no monopoly."
"Maybe not, but theirs is a special kind. I'm not saying I like them, but they give me a feeling. My father owned a theater. My house is only an eight-minute walk from Times Square, and I only need one room and a kitchen, so they can live there whether they can pay or not. Five of them are living there now-three men and two girls-and they use the kitchen. They're supposed to make their beds and keep their rooms decent, and 152 Rex Stout some of them do. I never go in their rooms. My room is the second floor front-"
"If you please." Wolfe was curt. "To the point."
"I'll get there, Falstaff. Let the lady talk." She took a sip. "Good coffee."
Hattie runs a rooming house for actors and “one of them committed murder less than twelve hours ago.” She is the most difficult “client” that Wolfe has had to handle. From her “no nonsense” approach to Wolfe (who else will call him Falstaff?) to her unusual demands, this is a special story.
A satisfactory resolution.
3.5
September 29, 2021
Nero Wolfe ed Archie - su invito di una donna un poco stramba - indagano su una faccenda di dollari falsi che sfocia in un omicidio. Un romanzo breve abbastanza interessante, con l'ineffabile investigatore ideato da Rex Stout.
September 6, 2016
Homicide Trinity
My Rating System:
* couldn't finish, ** wouldn't recommend, *** would recommend, **** would read again, ***** have read again.
My Rating System:
* couldn't finish, ** wouldn't recommend, *** would recommend, **** would read again, ***** have read again.
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews