The Golden Spiders finds Wolfe and Archie in ill-temper. Archie decides to admit a neighborhood boy who comes to Wolfe because of Wolfe\u2019s antipathy to police and the fact that he saw a woman in a car apparently in trouble. Wolfe handles the boy well and agrees to help by tracing the plate of the car.<\/p>\n
However, the boy is murdered the next day and the case goes to another level. The boy\u2019s mother asks Wolfe to find out why he was killed and offers her son\u2019s savings which amounts to $4.30 to find the killer. They begin the process by placing an ad, and get a response that\u2019s followed by another murder.<\/p>\n
This sets Archie and the teers on an investigation that leads them to the high and low end of society and on to the trail of an extortion ring that\u2019s the key to the whole plot.<\/p>\n
This is really a mixed bag in terms of quality. It has more action than any other Wolfe story, including a torture scene that\u2019s somewhat uncomfortable. To be fair about that, the bad guys started it by torturing Orrie Cather before Archie and friends turned the tables on them.<\/p>\n
There\u2019s also a very strong scene with Inspector Cramer that\u2019s probably his best scene as a detective in any of the books he\u2019s featured in. There are some good bits between Wolfe and Archie, and a pretty good final denouement.<\/p>\n
The book\u2019s weak point comes with Wolfe proposing a ruse for Archie that\u2019s so transparent, it doesn\u2019t fool anyone. It\u2019s really pathetic and beneath the standard of fun ruses that characterize the Wolfe books.<\/p>\n
The Golden Spiders<\/em>\u00a0was the basis of the pilot movie for A Nero Wolfe Mystery<\/em>, and I have to say this is one case where the movie beat the book. And the biggest difference was emotional impact. The book deals with the death of a child, but it doesn’t seem to impact the characters correctly. Stout could do this and often did with tragic adult deaths which Archie or Wolfe inadvertently played a role in books like in Prisoner\u2019s Base<\/em>, but just doesn’t seem to deliver here. It\u2019s worth noting that Pete Drossos is the only child to play a major role in any of the Wolfe stories, so writing children may not have been Stout\u2019s forte.<\/p>\n There\u2019s enough good stuff to keep this interesting, but overall I can only give the book a:<\/p>\n Rating: Satisfactory<\/p>\n You can find all the Nero Wolfe books in Kindle, Audiobook, and book form on our\u00a0Nero Wolfe page<\/a>.<\/p>\n