Triple Jeopardy
Triple Jeopardy is a collection of Nero Wolfe mystery novellas by Rex Stout, published by the Viking Press in 1952. Itself collected in the omnibus volume Kings Full of Aces (Viking 1969), the book comprises three stories that first appeared in The American Magazine:
- "Home to Roost" (January 1952, as "Nero Wolfe and the Communist Killer")
- "The Cop-Killer" (February 1951, as "The Cop Killer")
- "The Squirt and the Monkey" (August 1951, as "See No Evil")
Home to Roost
A young man is poisoned shortly after confiding to his aunt that his objectionable advocacy of the Communist party is a front for his undercover work for the FBI.
The Cop-Killer
The employees at the barbershop Archie Goodwin patronizes are questioned by a policeman after the deaths of two women in a hit-and-run car accident. Two of them, Carl and Tina Vardas, who are in the country illegally, flee to the brownstone and beg Archie to help them. Their overreaction proves to be justified; the cop is soon found stabbed to death in the shop and all suspicions focus on the Vardases. Wolfe must figure out how the three deaths are connected without getting the two fugitives in trouble with the police. He solves the mystery in his usual manner - by gathering all the suspects together and explaining his chain of reasoning - while getting a shave and haircut at the barbershop.
The Squirt and the Monkey
Archie becomes involved with gunplay at the unconventional and uncomfortably warm home of a syndicated cartoonist.
Adaptations
A Nero Wolfe Mystery (A&E Network)
"The Cop-Killer" was adapted for the second season of the A&E TV series A Nero Wolfe Mystery (2001–2002). Written by Jennifer Salt and directed by John R. Pepper, "Cop Killer" made its debut August 11, 2002, on A&E.
Timothy Hutton is Archie Goodwin; Maury Chaykin is Nero Wolfe. Other members of the cast (in credits order) include Kari Matchett (Janet Stahl), Nicky Guadagni (Tina Vardas), Hrant Alianak (Carl Vardas), Bill Smitrovich (Inspector Cramer), James Tolkan (Ed Graboff), Colin Fox (Fritz Brenner), R.D. Reid (Sergeant Purley Stebbins), Boyd Banks (Jimmie Kirk), Ken Kramer (Joel Fickler), Robbie Rox (Philip), Angelo Tsarouchas (Flatfoot Cop) and Doug Lennox (Detective Jacob Wallen).
In addition to original music by Nero Wolfe composer Michael Small, the soundtrack includes music by Robert Cornford (titles), Gioachino Rossini (opening sequence), Franz Schubert, David Steinberg and Dick Walter.[1]
A Nero Wolfe Mystery is available on DVD from A&E Home Video (ISBN 0-7670-8893-X).
Nero Wolfe (CBC Radio)
"The Cop Killer" was adapted as the fourth episode of the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation's 13-part radio series Nero Wolfe (1982), starring Mavor Moore as Nero Wolfe and Don Francks as Archie Goodwin. Written by Ron Hartmann, the hour-long adaptation aired on CBC Stereo February 6, 1982.
"The Squirt and the Monkey" was adapted as the tenth episode of the CBC radio series. Written by Ron Hartmann, the hour-long episode aired March 20, 1982.
Publication history
"Home to Roost"
"The Cop-Killer"
- 1951, The American Magazine, February 1951 (as "The Cop Killer")[3]
- 1952, Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine #100, March 1952 (as "The Cop Killer")
- 1954, Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine, British edition #23, December 1954 (as "The Cop Killer")
- 1960, Ellery Queen's Anthology #1, 1960 (as "The Cop Killer")
- 1964, Best Detective Stories 2, edited by Edmund Crispin; London: Faber and Faber, 1964
- 1994, Burlington, Ontario: Durkin Hayes Publishing, DH Audio ISBN 0-88646-705-5 July 1994, audio cassette (unabridged, read by Saul Rubinek)
"The Squirt and the Monkey"
- 1951, The American Magazine, August 1951 (as "See No Evil")[4]
- 1966, Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine #272, July 1966 (as "The Dazzle Dan Murder Case")
- 1972, Ellery Queen's Anthology #24, Fall–Winter 1972 (as "The Dazzle Dan Murder Case")
- 1977, Ellery Queen's Cops and Capers, edited by Ellery Queen; New York: Davis Publications ISBN 0-89559-001-8, 1977
Triple Jeopardy
- In his limited-edition pamphlet, Collecting Mystery Fiction #9, Rex Stout's Nero Wolfe Part I, Otto Penzler describes the first edition of Triple Jeopardy: "Yellow cloth, front cover and spine printed with black; rear cover blank. Issued in a black, white, and purple dust wrapper."[6]
- In April 2006, Firsts: The Book Collector's Magazine estimated that the first edition of Triple Jeopardy had a value of between $300 and $500.[7]
- 1952, New York: The Viking Press (Mystery Guild), July 1952, hardcover
- The far less valuable Viking book club edition may be distinguished from the first edition in three ways:
-
- The dust jacket has "Book Club Edition" printed on the inside front flap, and the price is absent (first editions may be price clipped if they were given as gifts).
- Book club editions are sometimes thinner and always taller (usually a quarter of an inch) than first editions.
- Book club editions are bound in cardboard, and first editions are bound in cloth (or have at least a cloth spine).[8]
- 1952, London: Collins Crime Club, October 13, 1952, hardcover
- 1957, New York: Bantam #A-1631, July 1957, paperback
- 1969, New York: The Viking Press, Kings Full of Aces: A Nero Wolfe Omnibus (with Too Many Cooks and Plot It Yourself), January 28, 1969, hardcover
- 1993, New York: Bantam Books (Rex Stout Library) ISBN 0-553-76307-5, April 1993, introduction by Aaron Elkins, paperback
- 1997, Newport Beach, California: Books on Tape, Inc. ISBN 0-7366-3748-6 July 21, 1997, audio cassette (unabridged, read by Michael Prichard)
- 2010, New York: Bantam ISBN 978-0-307-75630-5 April 28, 2010, e-book
References
- ^ Robert Cornford, "Louise"; KPM Music Ltd. KPM 129, Music for the Movies (track 22). Gioachino Rossini, The Barber of Seville – Overture; KPM Music Group KPM CS 8, Light Classics Volume Two (track 17). Franz Schubert, Piano Quintet in A Major ("The Trout"), 4th movement; KPM Music Group KPM CS 8, Light Classics Volume Two (track 20). David Steinberg, "Tom Toms Jam"; 5 Alarm Music, Swing (iTunes Store). Dick Walter, "The Time of Your Life"; KPM Music Ltd. KPM 369, Cinema, Storytelling and Adventure – Part Three (track 4.01). Additional soundtrack details at the Internet Movie Database and The Wolfe Pack, official site of the Nero Wolfe Society
- ^ Townsend, Guy M., Rex Stout: An Annotated Primary and Secondary Bibliography (1980, New York: Garland Publishing; ISBN 0-8240-9479-4), p. 65. John McAleer, Judson Sapp and Arriean Schemer are associate editors of this definitive publication history.
- ^ Townsend, Guy M., Rex Stout: An Annotated Primary and Secondary Bibliography (1980, New York: Garland Publishing; ISBN 0-8240-9479-4), pp. 63–64
- ^ Townsend, Guy M., Rex Stout: An Annotated Primary and Secondary Bibliography (1980, New York: Garland Publishing; ISBN 0-8240-9479-4), pp. 64–65
- ^ Townsend, Guy M., Rex Stout: An Annotated Primary and Secondary Bibliography (1980, New York: Garland Publishing; ISBN 0-8240-9479-4), pp. 82–83
- ^ Penzler, Otto, Collecting Mystery Fiction #9, Rex Stout's Nero Wolfe Part I (2001, New York: The Mysterious Bookshop, limited edition of 250 copies), p. 28
- ^ Smiley, Robin H., "Rex Stout: A Checklist of Primary First Editions." Firsts: The Book Collector's Magazine (Volume 16, Number 4), April 2006, p. 34. The first edition "states 'First published…' on the copyright page."
- ^ Penzler, Otto, Collecting Mystery Fiction #9, Rex Stout's Nero Wolfe Part I, pp. 19–20
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