|
''Three Witnesses'' is a collection of Nero Wolfe mystery novellas by Rex Stout, published by the Viking Press in 1956 and itself collected in the omnibus volume ''Royal Flush'' (Viking 1965). The book contains three stories that first appeared in ''The American Magazine'': * "The Next Witness" (May 1955, as "The Last Witness") * "When a Man Murders" (May 1954) * "Die Like a Dog" (December 1954, as "The Body in the Hall") Each story in this collection features a witness, not to a murder but to its prologue. ==Reviews and commentary== * Jacques Barzun and Wendell Hertig Taylor, ''A Catalogue of Crime'' — This is unquestionably the best of the Nero Wolfe "threesomes," containing as it does the little masterpiece called "The Next Witness", about a telephone-answering service; "When a Man Murders, a first-rate Enoch Arden tale; "Die Like a Dog", in which a dog and a raincoat mixed up figure prominently and skillfully. Archie is tops in all, and in the first we not only enjoy Wolfe subpoenaed and in a courtroom, but subsequently driving around and doing genuine detection on the hoof.〔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〕 * Anthony Boucher, ''The New York Times Book Review'' (March 18, 1956) — Tantalizingly, the Viking Press informs us that one of the three novelettes in Rex Stout's ''Three Witnesses'' "happens to be Stout's favorite among all the novelettes he has written." Which one? Viking isn't telling; but I'll agree that one entry here is at least as good as any I can remember among some two dozen novelettes of Nero Wolfe. "Die Like a Dog" (which, just to be confusing, appeared in American as "The Body in the Hall" and in Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine as "A Dog in the Daytime") combines one of Stout's most entertaining pictures of life in the menage at 918 West Thirty-fifth, as the hard-headed Nero turns out to be a dog lover at heart, with one of the best pure puzzles I've read in years: a technical model in the fair play and misdirection of the classic adventure form. The other two novelettes here assembled are only slightly less good; and connoisseurs will note with interest the fact that one of them succeeds, incredibly, in keeping Wolfe away from the comforts of Thirty-fifth Street for an entire case. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Three Witnesses (book)」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
|