Death of a Doxy
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| Death of a Doxy | |
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| Author | Rex Stout |
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| Cover artist | Bill English |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Series | Nero Wolfe |
| Genre(s) | Detective fiction |
| Publisher | Viking Press |
| Publication date | August 19, 1966 |
| Media type | Print (Hardcover) |
| Pages | 186 pp. (first edition) |
| ISBN | NA |
| Preceded by | The Doorbell Rang |
| Followed by | The Father Hunt |
Death of a Doxy is a Nero Wolfe detective novel by Rex Stout, first published by Viking Press in 1966.
Contents |
[edit] Plot introduction
"My sister was a what?"
"D,O,X,Y, doxy. I happen to like that better than concubine or paramour or mistress. I don't —"
I stopped because I had to, to protect my face.– Archie Goodwin, conversing with Stella Fleming in Death of a Doxy, chapter 5
Orrie Cather, one of Wolfe's operatives, has been secretly seeing a wealthy man's kept mistress at her secret lovenest. He is arrested when she turns up dead.
Orrie is the only one of Wolfe's operatives to have the plot of two Stout books turn on his actions: Death of a Doxy and Stout's final work, A Family Affair.
[edit] Plot summary
Argosy magazine (June 1967)
Orrie is finally going to tie the knot. He's engaged to marry Jill Hardy, a stewardess. But for months, Orrie's also been keeping company with Isabel Kerr, an ex-showgirl. Orrie has some time available because Jill works international flights. Isabel has time available because she no longer performs: rather, she occupies a plush apartment that's paid for by another gentleman friend who visits her just two or three times a week.
Isabel objects to Orrie's marriage plans. She has taken some of his personal and professional belongings and stashed them in her apartment. Isabel threatens to show them to Jill and thus quash the marriage. So, Orrie asks Archie to get into Isabel's apartment, find his possessions, and get them back. When Archie does enter the apartment, he finds not Orrie's belongings but Isabel's body. Archie withdraws to meet with Orrie, but otherwise keeps the news to himself.
Isabel's sister Stella later discovers the body. The police find Orrie's possessions in the apartment and arrest him on suspicion of murder. In a meeting to consider whether Orrie is guilty, Wolfe, Archie, and Fred are all unsure, but Saul — via some convoluted reasoning — concludes that he is innocent, and Wolfe undertakes to demonstrate it.
Wolfe must determine who knew about Isabel's apartment. Orrie has given Archie some names — Avery Ballou, who pays the bills, Stella Fleming and her husband Barry, and a nightclub singer named Julie Jaquette. Archie visits Stella and Barry, and learns that Stella is frantic to keep a lid on the nature of her sister's living arrangements. Stella's concern for Isabel's reputation is such that she tries to claw Archie's face when he refers to Isabel as a "doxy."
Archie corrals a reluctant Ballou, and Wolfe coerces his cooperation by threatening disclosure of his relationship with Isabel. It turns out that Ballou has already been subjected to blackmail, by someone named Milton Thales. Ballou thinks that Thales is really Orrie, but Wolfe deduces Thales' true identity and assumes that he is Isabel's murderer.
Wolfe sends Saul to bring Julie Jaquette. When she dances into Wolfe's office, Miss Jaquette puts on a performance, first singing and then demanding to see Wolfe's orchids. She displays a cynicism regarding human behavior that Wolfe regards as similar to his own. Miss Jaquette agrees to act as bait for the murderer and is nearly murdered herself. For her protection, she is moved into the brownstone, where she helps Wolfe and Archie force Thales' hand.
[edit] The unfamiliar word
In most Nero Wolfe novels and novellas, there is at least one unfamiliar word, usually spoken by Wolfe. Death of a Doxy contains these four (the page references are to the Bantam edition):
- Incumbency. Page 67, not quite halfway through Chapter 7, perhaps unfamiliar in the sense that Wolfe uses it.
- Strephon. Page 67. It is not clear whether Stout intends to compare Orrie Cather to the character Strephon in Gilbert & Sullivan's Iolanthe, or the character Strephon in Jonathan Swift's "Strephon and Chloe," although Swift's poem is considered much more offensive than Iolanthe.
- Juridically. Page 137, halfway through Chapter 13. (This word also appears in adjectival form in Prisoner's Base.)
- Chaldean. Page 173, end of Chapter 16.
[edit] Cast of characters
- Nero Wolfe — The private investigator
- Archie Goodwin — Wolfe's assistant (and the narrator of all Wolfe stories)
- Orrie Cather — An operative frequently in Wolfe's employ, along with Saul Panzer and Fred Durkin. Orrie's activities in this book are very limited, but the plot centers on his dalliance with Isabel Kerr.
- Jill Hardy — An airline attendant, then termed "stewardess," and Orrie's fiancee
- Isabel Kerr — The murder victim, occupant of a plush apartment, of whom a newspaper wrote, "It does not appear that Miss Kerr was employed anywhere or engaged in any regular activity."
- Stella Fleming — Isabel's sister, whose greatest fear is that Isabel's lifestyle will be publicized
- Barry Fleming — Stella's husband
- Avery Ballou — A CEO, a devotee of the works of Rudyard Kipling, and the source of Ms. Kerr's rent and other living expenses
- Julie Jaquette (stage name of Amy Jackson) — A successful nightclub singer and Isabel Kerr's best friend
- Inspector Cramer — Representing Manhattan Homicide.
[edit] Reviews and commentary
- Jacques Barzun and Wendell Hertig Taylor, A Catalogue of Crime — First-rate Stout done at the age of 80. The tightness of the plot, the wit, and the people are done with sureness and speed, so that the book, though short, gives one the sense of having lived through a long stretch of tense expectation. New roles, too, for Orrie Cather, Cramer, and Wolfe in relation to a murder which they are not asked to investigate. Wolfe gets his $50,000 fee, which one hopes he splits with the author.[1]
[edit] Adaptations
[edit] A Nero Wolfe Mystery (A&E Network)
An adaptation of Death of a Doxy opened the second season of the A&E TV series A Nero Wolfe Mystery (2001–2002). Directed by Timothy Hutton from a teleplay by Sharon Elizabeth Doyle, "Death of a Doxy" aired April 14, 2002, on A&E.
Timothy Hutton is Archie Goodwin; distinguished character actor Maury Chaykin is Nero Wolfe. Other members of the cast (in credits order) include Colin Fox (Fritz Brenner), Bill Smitrovich (Inspector Cramer), Conrad Dunn (Saul Panzer), Trent McMullen (Orrie Cather), Fulvio Cecere (Fred Durkin), Kari Matchett (Julie Jaquette/Lily Rowan), James Tolkan (Avery Ballou), Christine Brubaker (Stella Fleming), Carlo Rota (Barry Fleming), Nicky Guadagni (Mrs. Ballou), Hayley Verlyn (Isabel Kerr), Janine Theriault (Jill Hardy), George Plimpton (Nathaniel Parker) and Julian Richings (Poet).
A Nero Wolfe Mystery is available on DVD from A&E Home Video. ISBN 076708893X
[edit] Nero Wolfe (Paramount Television)
Death of a Doxy was adapted as "What Happened to April," the ninth episode of Nero Wolfe (1981), an NBC TV series starring William Conrad as Nero Wolfe and Lee Horsley as Archie Goodwin. Other members of the regular cast include George Voskovec (Fritz Brenner), Robert Coote (Theodore Horstmann), George Wyner (Saul Panzer) and Allan Miller (Inspector Cramer). Guest stars include Richard Anderson (Chester Winslow [Avery Ballou]), Deborah Fallender (Julie Keen [Jaquette]) and Laurie Heineman (Donna MacKenzie [Stella Fleming]). Directed by Edward M. Abroms from a teleplay by Stephen Downing, "What Happened to April" aired March 20, 1981.
[edit] External links
- A Nero Wolfe Mystery — "Death of a Doxy" at the Internet Movie Database
- A Nero Wolfe Mystery — "Death of a Doxy" at The Wolfe Pack, official site of the Nero Wolfe Society
- Nero Wolfe — "What Happened to April"' at the Internet Movie Database
The Wiktionary definition of doxy.
[edit] Publication history
- 1966, New York: Viking, August 19, 1966, hardcover
- 1966, New York: Viking (Mystery Guild), October 1966, hardcover
- 1966, Toronto Star Weekly, abridged, October 1966
- 1966, Toronto: Macmillan, 1966, hardcover
- 1967, London: Collins Crime Club, June 5, 1967, hardcover
- 1967, Argosy, June 1967 (abridged)
- 1967, New York: Bantam, August 1967, paperback
- 1969, London: Fontana, 1969, paperback
- 1995, New York: Bantam Crimeline ISBN 0553276069 October 1995, paperback
- 2002, Auburn, California: The Audio Partners Publishing Corp., Mystery Masters ISBN 1572702699 July 2002, audio cassette (unabridged, read by Michael Prichard)
[edit] References
- ^ Barzun, Jacques and Taylor, Wendell Hertig. A Catalogue of Crime. New York: Harper & Row. 1971, revised and enlarged edition 1989. ISBN 0-06-015796-8
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