Immune to Murder

"Immune to Murder"

Illustrated by Thornton Utz
Author Rex Stout
Country United States
Language English
Series Nero Wolfe
Genre(s) Detective fiction
Published in The American Magazine
Publication type Periodical
Publication date November 1955

"Immune to Murder" is a Nero Wolfe mystery novella by Rex Stout, first published in the November 1955 issue of The American Magazine. It first appeared in book form in the short-story collection Three for the Chair, published by the Viking Press in 1957.

Plot summary

"If I may," Ambassador Kelefy put in diplomatically. "I agree with Mr. Bragan and Mr. Ferris. Americans do not fight even for millions with clubs."

I could have named him an American who had used a blackjack on a fellow citizen to relieve him of $2.38, but of course he wasn't an oil tycoon.

— Archie Goodwin, commenting on an ambassador's naïveté, in "Immune to Murder", chapter 4

Nero Wolfe and Archie Goodwin travel to an oil tycoon's hunting lodge in the Adirondacks. The oilman, O.V. Bragan, is hosting a gathering of dignitaries who are apparently negotiating the acquisition of oil rights in another country; the country is not identified. Included are the country's ambassador to the U.S., his wife and assistant, a U.S. Assistant Secretary of State and his wife, and the head of a consortium of U.S. oil firms that are in competition with Bragan's for the oil rights.

Secretary Leeson has invited Wolfe to the lodge because the ambassador, Theodore Kelefy, wants to catch and eat an American brook trout, and, furthermore, wants the trout to be cooked by Nero Wolfe himself. To accommodate Kelefy, Wolfe agrees to cook trout Montbarry[1] for the guests on the final day of the conference.

On the night of Wolfe's arrival at the lodge, hard feelings are evident. Dinner is served at a table that is placed far too close to a fireplace for everyone's comfort. Kelefy's assistant, Spiros Papps, is describing the participants' interests to Archie over the entrée, but Bragan has seated both Archie and James Ferris, Bragan's competitor for the oil rights, so close to the fire that they are in serious discomfort. At last Ferris angrily leaves the table, followed shortly thereafter by Archie.

The next morning, the five negotiators – Bragan, Ferris, Kelefy, Papps and Leeson – go fishing. Each is assigned a different stretch of the river that runs by Bragan's lodge, and each is competing to catch the most trout before an 11:30 deadline. After the deadline has passed, Archie takes the opportunity to do some fishing himself, and less than a mile downstream from the lodge he gets a strike from a huge trout. As he is working the trout in, he sees something unexpected: the body of Assistant Secretary Leeson, lying on the riverbank with his head submerged in the water. Enough of his head is visible, though, that Archie can tell it was bashed with a blunt object.

Apparently inured to unexpected death, Archie reels in the trout before he returns to the lodge to report his discovery to Wolfe, who, having prepared the trout Montbarry, is packing to leave. After Archie explains to Wolfe what will happen if they try to leave, and after Wolfe has upbraided Archie for insisting on going fishing, Bragan is notified and the police called. The authorities investigate and conclude that Leeson was murdered, probably by someone staying at the lodge. This conclusion outrages Bragan, and District Attorney Colvin is appropriately obsequious, but he does not bend to the implicit political pressure.

That evening, Kelefy and his beautiful wife Adria visit Wolfe's room at the lodge. Kelefy has heard that the police investigation revealed that Wolfe did not cook the trout that Kelefy caught, and he wants to know why. Wolfe tells Kelefy it was just a whim – he is, after all, a confirmed eccentric. Kelefy accepts the explanation with some reluctance, and then asks Wolfe to keep confidential a heated exchange that took place between Bragan and Ferris. Wolfe agrees, and Kelefy removes an emerald ring from his finger and tells Adria to give it to Wolfe as an expression of his appreciation. After the Kelefys leave his room, Wolfe and Archie examine the emerald and find that, although large, it is flawed and probably fairly cheap.

Wolfe is irked rather than pleased by the tawdry gift, and is moved to action. He wants to speak with his lawyer, Nathaniel Parker, but the police are everywhere at the lodge so there is no possibility of making a telephone call in private. Wolfe solves that problem by conversing with Parker in French, a language that the officers do not speak. Once he has obtained the information he needs, he calls the U.S. Secretary of State, the only person to whom he can safely reveal the murderer's identity.

Cast of characters

Publication history

"Immune to Murder"

Three for the Chair

Contents include "A Window for Death", "Immune to Murder" and "Too Many Detectives".
In his limited-edition pamphlet, Collecting Mystery Fiction #10, Rex Stout's Nero Wolfe Part II, Otto Penzler describes the first edition of Three for the Chair: "Yellow cloth, front cover printed with black and blue lettering and design; spine printed with black lettering; rear cover blank. Issued in a mainly light orange dust wrapper."[3]:5
In April 2006, Firsts: The Book Collector's Magazine estimated that the first edition of Three for the Chair had a value of between $200 and $350. The estimate is for a copy in very good to fine condition in a like dustjacket.[4]
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).[5]:19–20

Adaptations

A Nero Wolfe Mystery (A&E Network)

"Immune to Murder" was adapted for the second season of the A&E TV series A Nero Wolfe Mystery (2001–2002). The episode made its debut August 18, 2002 — the last original broadcast of the series on the A&E Network. Directed by John R. Pepper, the teleplay was written by Stuart Kaminsky. Interviewed by Publishers Weekly upon being named a Grand Master by the Mystery Writers of America, Kaminsky was asked about his work on Nero Wolfe:

I ended up writing the last episode, "Immune to Murder," based on one of Rex Stout's short stories. I thought it was a terrific series, by the way. I don't know for sure why it didn't continue. I love the Nero Wolfe/Archie Goodwin novels. I just loved listening to those characters in my mind talking to each other...[6]

Timothy Hutton is Archie Goodwin; Maury Chaykin is Nero Wolfe. Other members of the cast (in credits order) include David Schurmann (O.V. Bragan), Robert Bockstael (David Leeson), Carlo Rota (Spiros Papps), Susannah Hoffmann (Sally Leeson), Giancarlo Esposito (Ambassador Theodore Kelefy), Seymour Cassel (James Arthur Ferris), Manon von Gerkan (Adria Kelefy), George Plimpton (Cook), Richard Waugh (Capt. Jasper Colvin), Matthew Edison (Nate the Trooper) and Steve Cumyn (D.A. Herman Jasper).

The soundtrack includes music by Michael Small, composer for Nero Wolfe, and Angel Villaldo.[7]

In international broadcasts, the 45-minute A&E version of "Immune to Murder" is expanded into a 90-minute widescreen telefilm.[8]

A Nero Wolfe Mystery is available on DVD from A&E Home Video. ISBN 0-7670-8893-X

References

  1. ↑ The full recipe is given in The Nero Wolfe Cookbook where, however, the preliminary discussion in the Penguin Books edition hopelessly confuses material from Immune to Murder with material from Death of a Dude, which describes a "real Nero Wolfe trout deal" as a substitute for genuine trout Montbarry.
  2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 Townsend, Guy M., Rex Stout: An Annotated Primary and Secondary Bibliography. New York: Garland Publishing, 1980. John McAleer, Judson Sapp and Arriean Schemer are associate editors of this definitive publication history. ISBN 0-8240-9479-4
  3. ↑ Penzler, Otto, Collecting Mystery Fiction #10, Rex Stout's Nero Wolfe Part II. New York: The Mysterious Bookshop, 2001. Limited edition of 250 copies.
  4. ↑ 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
  5. ↑ Penzler, Otto, Collecting Mystery Fiction #9, Rex Stout's Nero Wolfe Part I. New York: The Mysterious Bookshop, 2001. Limited edition of 250 copies.
  6. ↑ Picker, Leonard, "A New MWA Grand Master; PW Talks with Stuart Kaminsky"; Publishers Weekly, December 19, 2005
  7. ↑ Angel Villoldo, "El Choclo," arranged by Colin Frechter; Carlin Production Music CAR 164, Latin American (track 13). Additional soundtrack details at the Internet Movie Database and The Wolfe Pack, official site of the Nero Wolfe Society
  8. ↑ Sky Movies (UK) summary retrieved October 3, 2007; run length is recorded as 90 minutes. Program listings for Thursday, November 11, 2004, broadcast on Sky Movies 8 records broadcast as widescreen format.

External links