A Family Affair (novel)

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

A Family Affair

Author	Rex Stout
Cover artist	Mel Williamson
Country	United States
Language	English
Series	Nero Wolfe
Genre(s)	Detective fiction
Publisher	Viking Press
Publication date	May 1975
Media type	Print (Hardcover)
Pages	152 pp. (first edition)
ISBN	ISBN 0670306118
Preceded by	Please Pass the Guilt
Followed by	Death Times Three

A Family Affair is the final Nero Wolfe detective novel by Rex Stout, published by the Viking Press in 1975.

[edit] Plot summary

Nero Wolfe's last recorded case. Wolfe never works without a well-heeled client and a sizable fee, but when a bomb rocks his brownstone, killing his favorite waiter from his favorite restaurant, the world's greatest gourmet takes it as a personal affront. What kind of unsavory killer commits murder within ten feet of a legendary detective? It's a question Wolfe will go to heroic lengths to answer. But even as he and Archie uncover an unappetizing brew of conspiracy and lies, the killer serves up a second helping of homicide... and Wolfe is left to face the most unpalatable truth of his career.

For much of the story, Stout leads the reader to believe that the central murder mystery is related to the Watergate scandal. Ultimately, Wolfe discovers that the killer is one of his closest associates, a character who had been appearing in Nero Wolfe mysteries for over forty years.

[edit] Reviews

Time (November 3, 1975)

[edit] Release details

2006, USA, The Audio Partners Publishing Corp., Mystery Masters ISBN 1572704942 January 9, 2006, audio CD (unabridged, read by Michael Prichard)
1993, USA, Bantam Crimeline ISBN 0553241222 January 1, 1993, paperback
1975, USA, Viking ISBN 0670306118 second printing September 8, 1975; third printing November 1975

v • d • e Nero Wolfe books by Rex Stout

Novels	Fer-de-Lance • The League of Frightened Men • The Rubber Band • The Red Box • Too Many Cooks • Some Buried Caesar • Over My Dead Body • Where There's a Will • The Silent Speaker • Too Many Women • And Be a Villain • The Second Confession • In the Best Families • Murder by the Book • Prisoner's Base • The Golden Spiders • The Black Mountain • Before Midnight • Might as Well Be Dead • If Death Ever Slept • Champagne for One • Plot It Yourself • Too Many Clients • The Final Deduction • Gambit • The Mother Hunt • A Right to Die • The Doorbell Rang • Death of a Doxy • The Father Hunt • Death of a Dude • Please Pass the Guilt • A Family Affair

Short story collections	Black Orchids • Not Quite Dead Enough • Trouble in Triplicate • Three Doors to Death • Curtains for Three • Triple Jeopardy • Three Men Out • Three Witnesses • Three for the Chair • And Four to Go • Three at Wolfe's Door • Homicide Trinity • Trio for Blunt Instruments • Death Times Three