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SYNOPSIS:
ARCHIE'S ASSIGNMENT looked easy. He was to sit in Thomas Yeager's little love nest to see if anyone appeared. He didn't have long to wait, and after a few days he began to think there were dozens of keys to that room - - each held by a beautiful young girl with a yen for Yeager.
But behind every one of those girls, was a man - - a man with an understandable motive for murdering Yeager.
Archie was sprawled on the eight-foot satin bed when he decide he was glad Yeager was dead. Then the door opened once more and the biggest surprise of all stood looking down at him!
QUOTATION:
"A modern satyr is part man, part pig, and part jackass. He hasn't even the charm of the
roguish; he doesn't lean gracefully against a tree with a flute in his hand. The only quality he has
preserved from his Attic ancestors is lust, and he gratifies it in dark corners or other men's beds or
hotel rooms, not in the shade of an olive tree on a sunny hillside. The preposterous bower of
carnality you have described is a sorry makeshift, but at least Mr. Yeager tried. A pig and a
jackass, yes, but the flute strain was in him too -- as it once was in me, in my youth." (pp.
47-48)
REVIEW:
Probably the most visceral Nero Wolfe, it does have a "bower of carnality" in the story however, I would say that it is the characters and their reactions that give this story a really strong presence. A great mystery, and one that presents all sorts of challenges both to Archie and Wolfe. [goodreads.com]
