Fer-de-Lance by Rex Stout is the first Nero Wolfe detective novel, published in 1934 by Farrar & Rinehart, Inc. The novel appeared in abridged form in The American Magazine (November 1934) under the title "Point of Death". The novel was adapted for the 1936 film Meet Nero Wolfe, and it was named after a venomous snake with the same name. In his seminal 1941 work, Murder for Pleasure, crime fiction historian Howard Haycraft included Fer-de-Lance in his definitive list of the most influential works of mystery fiction.

Plot introduction

In the opening chapter, Wolfe decides to give up drinking bootleg beer and sends Fritz to purchase samples of every legally available brand (49 in all) so he can select a replacement. The date set in the novel is given as June 7, Wednesday, which makes the year 1933. The Cullen–Harrison Act had just become law on April 7, 1933, legalising "3.2 beer" (3.2% alcohol by weight, approximately 4% alcohol by volume), a point mentioned in passing in the novel.

As Wolfe samples the beers and is surprised to find that none of them are unpalatable, Fred Durkin arrives and asks sheepishly if Wolfe can speak with Maria Maffei, a friend of his wife. Maria's brother Carlo, a metalworker, was unemployed (it was during the Great Depression) and was supposed to return to Italy. He suddenly seemed to come into money, and then disappeared mysteriously. Impressed by Maria Maffei, Wolfe instructs his assistant Archie Goodwin to make enquiries. Wolfe and Goodwin soon learn that Carlo's disappearance somehow involves the death of a college president while playing golf in Westchester County, New York.

As the first novel in the series, Fer-de-Lance introduces Nero Wolfe, Archie Goodwin, Fritz Brenner, Saul Panzer, Fred Durkin, Orrie Cather and other characters who recur throughout the entire corpus. Although the characters are not as fully developed as they would become later in the series, the essential characteristics of Wolfe, Archie and several other regulars already are clearly present.

However, there are some inconsistencies with the characters and settings that would be used thereafter. In particular, the novel's descriptions of Wolfe's Manhattan brownstone conflict with the established architecture set down by Stout in all subsequent novels and stories. Likewise, the characters have slightly different personalities: Wolfe's manner of speaking is notably more baroque and long-winded than in later stories, and Archie is generally coarser and less polished in this work than in later Stout volumes, even using racial epithets at times (something that would continue into the late 1930s before being eliminated). Cramer is noticeably friendlier and much calmer around Wolfe than in future volumes, and Purley Stebbins is similarly not as wary of Archie as he would become. Finally, Orrie Cather is introduced in Fer-de-Lance as a crusty old veteran detective, who chews tobacco; in all future Stout works, he would be a younger, self-confident ladies' man with no tobacco habit.

The story's title is the common name of Bothrops atrox, a venomous South American snake.Fer-de-Lance, chapter 16 Fer-de-Lance is French for spearhead, literally iron of the lance.

In Fer-de-Lance, Stout reused a key plot point relating to the murder weapon that he had used in his early mystery The Last Drive, which was serialized in Golfers Magazine in 1916.Rex T. Stout, The Last Drive, serialized in six parts in Golfers Magazine from July to December 1916. The story is reprinted in Ross E. Davies & Ira Brad Matetsky, eds., The 2012 Green Bag Almanac and Reader, pp. 225-312. This story had been forgotten for many years—it is not mentioned in Stout's biography or in bibliographies of his works—until it was rediscovered in 2011.Ross E. Davies & Cattleya M. Concepcion, "Fore-Shadowed: Where Rex Stout Got the Idea for Fer-de-Lance", The 2012 Green Bag Almanac and Reader pp. 249-54, [available on SSRN https://ssrn.com/abstract=1962907].

Plot summary

Maria Maffei, a family friend of one of Wolfe's free-lance men, offers to hire Wolfe to locate her missing brother Carlo, a metalworker. Wolfe, affected by the Depression, decides to take the job, although it is unappealing to him. Archie locates Anna Fiore, a girl who listened in on a phone call Carlo received at his boarding-house shortly before his disappearance. Wolfe learns from her that Carlo had clipped a story from a copy of The New York Times about the sudden death (apparently by stroke) of Peter Oliver Barstow, president of Holland College. However, Anna refuses to provide any further details about Carlo, who is soon found dead in the countryside, stabbed in the back.

From reading the account of Barstow's death, which occurred during a round of golf, Wolfe conjectures that one of his clubs may have been altered to fire a poisoned needle into his belly. An autopsy proves Wolfe right, and he and Archie begin to concentrate on the Barstow family and their acquaintances, E.D. Kimball and his son Manuel, who had both been part of the golf foursome. While trying to figure out the whereabouts of Barstow's golf bag, Archie learns from the group's caddies that he had borrowed a driver from E.D. during the round. This fact, coupled with E.D.'s accounts of his past in Argentina, leads Wolfe and Archie to conclude that Manuel had intended to kill his father, not Barstow, in revenge for the death of his mother years earlier. Archie confirms Manuel's movements on the day Carlo was killed, making him a suspect in that murder as well. Manuel retaliates by having an associate plant a deadly Bothrops atrox viper in Wolfe's desk drawer, but Wolfe and Archie find and kill it.

With Maria's cooperation, Wolfe and Archie arrange a robbery in the countryside to scare Anna into telling what she knows. The trick works, and she hands over documents proving that Manuel hired Carlo to build the driver that killed Barstow. With the Kimball estate staked out, and a copy of the evidence delivered to Manuel, Archie leads the local police in so they can make an arrest. They learn that Manuel, an avid pilot, has taken E.D. up for a flight, and are shocked when the plane suddenly nose-dives into the ground; the impact kills both of the Kimballs.

Wolfe collects both the $50,000 reward that Barstow's widow had offered for the capture of his killer, and another $10,000 from a district attorney who had been skeptical of the murder theory. Wolfe comments that the climax of the case gave both E.D. and Manuel a chance to end their lives without any sense of bitterness or despair, but Archie notes that it has also kept Wolfe from having to leave his comfortable house in order to testify at a murder trial.

Cast of characters Nero Wolfe — The private investigator Archie Goodwin — Wolfe's assistant, and the narrator of all Wolfe stories Carlo Maffei — Italian-American metalworker whose disappearance forces Wolfe to begin working Maria Maffei — Sister of Carlo Maffei and friend of Fred Durkin's wife Peter Oliver Barstow — President of Holland University (fictional), whose bizarre death on a golf course is the key to the mystery Lawrence Barstow — Peter Barstow's son, who was with him when he died Ellen Barstow — Widow of Peter Barstow Sarah Barstow — Peter Barstow's daughter who graduated from Smith College E.D. Kimball — Grain broker who was one of the foursome when Barstow died Manuel Kimball — E.D. Kimball's son who was also one of the foursome, and also an aviator Dr. Nathaniel Bradford — Family physician of the Barstows and friend of Peter since childhood Anna Fiore — Cleaning girl at Carlo Maffei's boarding house Saul Panzer, Fred Durkin, Orrie Cather and Bill Gore — Freelance detectives employed by Wolfe

Reviews and commentary Isaac Anderson, The New York Times Book Review — Several times in the course of this story Nero Wolfe is called a genius. The term is painfully inadequate, but it is the best that the dictionary offers ... The only thing that he does not know at the very beginning is the identity of the murderer. That he is to learn later, and the method he chooses for revealing his knowledge to the authorities provides a sensational concluding chapter for a story that abounds in surprises. Nero Wolfe is so fat that locomotion is next to impossible for him. For his fact-finding he depends upon his secretary, Archie, and it is the latter who tells the tale. The author has done a clever bit of work in making the narrative style employed by Archie correspond so exactly to his character and attainments as they are revealed in little touches here and there throughout the book. "Right off, Archie had stolen a major reviewer out from under Wolfe's nose," wrote John McAleer in Rex Stout: A Biography (p. 256). "There was to be no helping this. But it was no misfortune. If you bought Archie, sooner or later you would buy Wolfe, too. There was no other way to go. That was all the encouragement Rex needed. Wolfe had survived the journey of creation." Jacques Barzun and Wendell Hertig Taylor, A Catalogue of Crime — The first and longest of the Nero Wolfe stories, in which all the familiar characters and their habits get established. The murder is done by means of a golf club—the implement, not the membership—and it entangles a college president, a baby, some Italian nondescripts, and much philosophizing by Wolfe and futilizing by the police. Frederick Isaac, In the Beginning: First Novels in Mystery Series — Rex Stout's Fer-de-Lance, then, may be said to have heralded the beginning of several eras. It was, first and foremost, the opening of one of America's best detective series, introducing Nero Wolfe and Archie Goodwin and their world to generations of readers. Second, Archie's presence raises serious questions about the possible roles that the detective's assistant could and should play in the investigative process, some of which remain open even today. ... Third, Wolfe and Archie began to redefine the relationship between the two traditions of the Great Detective and the hard-boiled sleuth. ... By identifying both of these strands and personifying them in Wolfe and Archie, Stout challenged the world of detection to analyze itself. The genre has never been the same since. It was quite a start.Isaac, Frederick, "Enter the Fat Man: Rex Stout's Fer-de-Lance "; in In the Beginning: First Novels in Mystery Series, edited by Mary Jean DeMarr (1995, Bowling Green State University Popular Press, ), pp. 66–67 John McAleer, Rex Stout: A Biography — Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes died on 6 March 1935, at ninety-four. During the last year of his life he read Fer-de-Lance. After his death, a marginal note he had made was found. Carl Van Doren got hold of it and showed it to Rex. It read, "This fellow is the best of them all." Another early and steadfast admirer was William Faulkner. Carvell Collins, whom Faulkner picked as his literary executor, says: "Among the detective fiction Faulkner read — and it was of considerable quantity — he especially liked that by Rex Stout. One of Mr. Stout's novels which was singled out was Fer-de-Lance. J. Kenneth Van Dover, At Wolfe's Door — The basic conventions are all in evidence — Wolfe's obesity, immobility, daily routines, elegant diction. Panzer, Durkin, Cather, and Gore debut in supporting roles. Wolfe and Archie engage in typical squabbles; Wolfe is gratuitously and offensively curt to certain callers, and is an irresistible host to others. His ethical standards are unusually idiosyncratic …

Adaptations

Meet Nero Wolfe

Columbia Pictures adapted the first Nero Wolfe novel for the screen in 1936, as Meet Nero Wolfe. Herbert Biberman directed a cast that included Edward Arnold as Wolfe; Lionel Stander as Archie Goodwin; John Qualen as Olaf, Wolfe's Scandinavian chef; and a young Rita Hayworth (then Rita Cansino) as Maria Maringola, who sets the story in motion when she asks for Wolfe's help in finding her missing brother, Carlo.