Death Of A Doxy
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''Death of a Doxy'' is a
Nero Wolfe Nero Wolfe is a brilliant, obese and eccentric fictional armchair detective created in 1934 by American mystery (fiction), mystery writer Rex Stout. Wolfe was born in Principality of Montenegro, Montenegro and keeps his past murky. He lives in a ...
detective novel Detective fiction is a subgenre of crime fiction and mystery fiction in which an investigator or a detective—whether professional, amateur or retired—investigates a crime, often murder. The detective genre began around the same time as specu ...
by
Rex Stout Rex Todhunter Stout (; December 1, 1886–October 27, 1975) was an American writer noted for his detective fiction. His best-known characters are the detective Nero Wolfe and his assistant Archie Goodwin, who were featured in 33 novels and ...
, first published by
Viking Press Viking Press (formally Viking Penguin, also listed as Viking Books) is an American publishing company owned by Penguin Random House. It was founded in New York City on March 1, 1925, by Harold K. Guinzburg and George S. Oppenheimer and then acqu ...
in 1966.


Plot introduction

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''.


Plot summary

Orrie is finally going to tie the knot. He is 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 also has time available, because she no longer performs: rather, she occupies a plush apartment that is 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 A nightclub act is a production, usually of nightclub music or comedy, designed for performance at a nightclub, a type of drinking establishment, by a nightclub performer such as a nightclub singer or nightclub dancer, whose performance may ...
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" (
prostitute Prostitution is a type of sex work that involves engaging in sexual activity in exchange for payment. The definition of "sexual activity" varies, and is often defined as an activity requiring physical contact (e.g., sexual intercourse, non-pe ...
). 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. Julie agrees to act as bait for the murderer and is nearly killed herself. For her protection, she is moved into the brownstone, where she helps Wolfe and Archie force Thales' hand after Wolfe offers $50,000 cash for her assistance.


The unfamiliar word

"Like all of us, Wolfe has his favorite words, phrases, and sayings," wrote William S. Baring-Gould. "Among the words, many are unusual and some are abstruse." Nero Wolfe's erudite vocabulary is one of the hallmarks of the character. Examples of unfamiliar words—or unfamiliar uses of words that some would otherwise consider familiar—are found throughout the corpus. ''Death of a Doxy'' contains several examples, including the following: * "Incumbency". Chapter 7; perhaps unfamiliar in the sense that Wolfe uses it: "Mr. Cather has worked for me, on occasion, for years, and I am under an incumbency." * "Strephon". Chapter 7. "Strephon is the lover of Urania in Sir
Philip Sidney Sir Philip Sidney (30 November 1554 – 17 October 1586) was an English poet, courtier, scholar and soldier who is remembered as one of the most prominent figures of the Elizabethan era, Elizabethan age. His works include a sonnet sequence, ' ...
's '' Arcadia''," wrote Rev. Frederick G. Gotwald in ''The Nero Wolfe Companion''. "It became the conventional name for a lover in literature." Dating to 1580, the character later appears in
Jonathan Swift Jonathan Swift (30 November 1667 – 19 October 1745) was an Anglo-Irish writer, essayist, satirist, and Anglican cleric. In 1713, he became the Dean (Christianity), dean of St Patrick's Cathedral, Dublin, and was given the sobriquet "Dean Swi ...
's "Strephon and Chloe" (1731); '' Happy Arcadia'' (1872), a one-act musical play with libretto by
W. S. Gilbert Sir William Schwenck Gilbert (18 November 1836 â€“ 29 May 1911) was an English dramatist, librettist, poet and illustrator best known for his collaboration with composer Arthur Sullivan, which produced fourteen comic operas. The most fam ...
; and
Gilbert and Sullivan Gilbert and Sullivan refers to the Victorian-era theatrical partnership of the dramatist W. S. Gilbert (1836–1911) and the composer Arthur Sullivan (1842–1900) and to the works they jointly created. The two men collaborated on fourteen com ...
's ''
Iolanthe ''Iolanthe; or, The Peer and the Peri'' () is a comic opera with music by Arthur Sullivan and libretto by W. S. Gilbert, first performed in 1882. It is one of the Savoy operas and is the seventh of fourteen operatic collaborations by Gilbert ...
'' (1882). * "Juridically". Chapter 13. (This word also appears in adjectival form in ''
The League of Frightened Men ''The League of Frightened Men'' is the second Nero Wolfe detective novel by Rex Stout. The story was serialized in six issues of ''The Saturday Evening Post'' (June 15–July 20, 1935) under the title ''The Frightened Men''. The novel was publi ...
'' and '' Prisoner's Base''.) * "
Chaldea Chaldea () refers to a region probably located in the marshy land of southern Mesopotamia. It is mentioned, with varying meaning, in Neo-Assyrian cuneiform, the Hebrew Bible, and in classical Greek texts. The Hebrew Bible uses the term (''KaÅ ...
n". Chapter 16.


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 fiancée * 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, a mathematics professor * Avery Ballou: A CEO, a devotee of the works of
Rudyard Kipling Joseph Rudyard Kipling ( ; 30 December 1865 – 18 January 1936)''The Times'', (London) 18 January 1936, p. 12. was an English journalist, novelist, poet, and short-story writer. He was born in British Raj, British India, which inspired much ...
, and the source of Miss 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


Reviews and commentary

*
Jacques Barzun Jacques Martin Barzun (; November 30, 1907 – October 25, 2012) was a French-born American historian known for his studies of the history of ideas and cultural history. He wrote about a wide range of subjects, including baseball, mystery novels, ...
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.Barzun, Jacques and Taylor, Wendell Hertig. ''A Catalogue of Crime''. New York: Harper & Row. 1971, revised and enlarged edition 1989. *
Terry Teachout Terrance Alan Teachout (February 6, 1956 – January 13, 2022) was an American author, critic, biographer, playwright, stage director, and librettist. He was the drama critic of ''The Wall Street Journal'', the critic-at-large of '' Commentary' ...
, About Last Night
"Forty years with Nero Wolfe"
(January 12, 2009)—Rex Stout's witty, fast-moving prose hasn't dated a day, while Wolfe himself is one of the enduringly great eccentrics of popular fiction. I've spent the past four decades reading and re-reading Stout's novels for pleasure, and they have yet to lose their savor ... It is to revel in such writing that I return time and again to Stout's books, and in particular to ''
The League of Frightened Men ''The League of Frightened Men'' is the second Nero Wolfe detective novel by Rex Stout. The story was serialized in six issues of ''The Saturday Evening Post'' (June 15–July 20, 1935) under the title ''The Frightened Men''. The novel was publi ...
'', '' Some Buried Caesar'', '' The Silent Speaker'', '' Too Many Women'', '' Murder by the Book'', ''
Before Midnight ''Before Midnight'' is a 2013 American romantic drama film directed by Richard Linklater, who co-wrote the screenplay with Ethan Hawke and Julie Delpy. The sequel to ''Before Sunrise'' (1995) and ''Before Sunset'' (2004), it is the third insta ...
'', '' Plot It Yourself'', '' Too Many Clients'', '' The Doorbell Rang'', and ''Death of a Doxy'', which are for me the best of all the full-length Wolfe novels.


Adaptations


''Nero Wolfe'' (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 Timothy Hutton (born August 16, 1960) is an American actor and film director. He is the List of oldest and youngest Academy Award winners and nominees#Youngest winners 4, youngest recipient of the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor, which he ...
is Archie Goodwin;
Maury Chaykin Maury Alan Chaykin (July 27, 1949 – July 27, 2010) was an American-Canadian actor. Described as "one of the most recognizable faces in Canadian cinema," he was best known for his portrayal of Rex Stout's detective Nero Wolfe on the televi ...
is Nero Wolfe. Other members of the cast (in credits order) include Colin Fox ( Fritz Brenner),
Bill Smitrovich William Stanley Zmitrowicz Jr. (born May 16, 1947), known professionally as Bill Smitrovich ( ), is an American actor. Personal life Smitrovich was born on May 16, 1947, in Bridgeport, Connecticut, the son of Anna (married and maiden names, née ...
( Inspector Cramer),
Conrad Dunn Conrad Dunn is an American actor. He began his screen career with the role of Francis "Psycho" Soyer in '' Stripes'' (1981). Working for some ten years under the name George Jenesky, he achieved soap-opera stardom in ''Days of Our Lives'' as Nick C ...
( Saul Panzer), Trent McMullen ( Orrie Cather),
Fulvio Cecere Fulvio Cecere (born March 11, 1960) is a Canadian actor and filmmaker. Early life Born in Canada, he moved to Hawthorne, New Jersey, as a teenager and attended Hawthorne High School, graduating as part of the class of 1978. Cecere attended Sout ...
( Fred Durkin),
Kari Matchett Kari Matchett is a Canadian actress. She is known for her roles as Colleen Blessed on ''Power Play'', Joan Campbell on ''Covert Affairs'', Kate Filmore in the science fiction movie '' Cube 2: Hypercube'', and U.S. president Michelle Travers on '' ...
(Julie Jaquette/ Lily Rowan),
James Tolkan James Stewart Tolkan (born June 20, 1931) is an American actor. He is best known for his roles as high school vice-principal in charge of discipline Mr. Strickland in ''Back to the Future'' (1985) and ''Back to the Future Part II'' (1989), and as ...
(Avery Ballou), Christine Brubaker (Stella Fleming),
Carlo Rota Carlo Dante Rota (born 17 April 1961) is a British-born Canadian actor. He has appeared in '' Little Mosque on the Prairie'' and as systems analyst Morris O'Brian on the Fox series '' 24''. He also co-starred as Emilio Solano in '' Jane the ...
(Barry Fleming), Nicky Guadagni (Mrs. Ballou), Hayley Verlyn (Isabel Kerr), Janine Theriault (Jill Hardy),
George Plimpton George Ames Plimpton (March 18, 1927 – September 25, 2003) was an American writer. He is known for his sports writing and for helping to found ''The Paris Review'', as well as his patrician demeanor and accent. He was known for " participat ...
(Nathaniel Parker) and
Julian Richings Julian Richings (born 30 August 1956)''Births, Marriages & Deaths Index of England & Wales, 1916–2005.''; at Ancestry.com is a British-Canadian character actor, having appeared in over 225 films and television series. He is best known for hi ...
(Poet). In addition to original music by ''Nero Wolfe'' composer
Michael Small Michael Small (May 30, 1939 – November 24, 2003) was an American film score composer known for his scores to thriller movies such as ''Klute'', '' The Parallax View'', '' Marathon Man'', and '' The Star Chamber''. Personal life Small was bor ...
, the soundtrack includes music by Rick Cassman and Vyv Hope-Scott, Graham de Wilde,
Antonín Dvořák Antonín Leopold Dvořák ( ; ; 8September 18411May 1904) was a Czech composer. He frequently employed rhythms and other aspects of the folk music of Moravia and his native Bohemia, following the Romantic-era nationalist example of his predec ...
, Ken Miller and David Steinberg. In North America, ''A Nero Wolfe Mystery'' is available on Region 1 DVD from A&E Home Video (). The DVD release presents the 4:3
pan and scan Pan and scan is a film editing technique used to modify widescreen images for display on a fullscreen screen. It involves cropping the sides of the original widescreen image and panning across it when the shot's focus changes. This cropping c ...
version of "Death of a Doxy" rather than A&E's 16:9
letterboxed Letter-boxing is the practice of transferring film shot in a widescreen aspect ratio to standard-width video formats while preserving the film's original aspect ratio. The resulting video-graphic image has mattes of empty space above and belo ...
version. "Death of a Doxy" is one of the ''Nero Wolfe'' episodes released on Region 2 DVD in the Netherlands by Just Entertainment, under license from
FremantleMedia Fremantle Limited (), formerly FremantleMedia, is a British multinational television production and distribution company based in London. The company was founded as Pearson Television in 1993 when publishing and education company Pearson ...
Enterprises. ''A Nero Wolfe Mystery—Serie 2'' (2010) was the first DVD release of the international version of the episode, which includes a brief closing scene in which Orrie visits the brownstone. The Netherlands release has optional Dutch subtitles and, like the A&E DVD release, presents the episode in 4:3
pan and scan Pan and scan is a film editing technique used to modify widescreen images for display on a fullscreen screen. It involves cropping the sides of the original widescreen image and panning across it when the shot's focus changes. This cropping c ...
rather than its 16:9 aspect ratio for
widescreen Widescreen images are displayed within a set of aspect ratio (image), aspect ratios (relationship of image width to height) used in film, television and computer screens. In film, a widescreen film is any film image with a width-to-height aspect ...
viewing.


''Nero Wolfe'' (Paramount Television)

''Death of a Doxy'' was adapted as "What Happened to April", the ninth episode of ''
Nero Wolfe Nero Wolfe is a brilliant, obese and eccentric fictional armchair detective created in 1934 by American mystery (fiction), mystery writer Rex Stout. Wolfe was born in Principality of Montenegro, Montenegro and keeps his past murky. He lives in a ...
'' (1981), an NBC TV series starring
William Conrad William Conrad (born John William Cann Jr., September 27, 1920 – February 11, 1994) was an American actor, producer, and director whose entertainment career spanned five decades in radio, film, and television, peaking in popularity when he s ...
as Nero Wolfe and Lee Horsley as Archie Goodwin. Other members of the regular cast include George Voskovec (Fritz Brenner),
Robert Coote Robert Coote (4 February 1909 – 26 November 1982) was an English actor. He played aristocrats or British military types in many films, and created the role of Colonel Hugh Pickering in the long-running original Broadway production of ''My Fai ...
(Theodore Horstmann),
George Wyner George Wyner (born October 20, 1945) is an American film and television actor. Wyner graduated from Syracuse University in 1968 as a drama major and was an in-demand character actor by the early 1970s. Wyner has made guest appearances in over 10 ...
(Saul Panzer) and
Allan Miller Allan Miller (born February 14, 1929) is an American stage, film, and television actor. Biography Miller served in the U.S. Army after World War II during the occupation of Japan.Miller, Daryl H"Stages of Development" ''Los Angeles Times'' ...
(Inspector Cramer). Guest stars include
Richard Anderson Richard Norman Anderson (August 8, 1926 – August 31, 2017) was an American film and television actor. One of his best-known roles was his portrayal of Oscar Goldman, the boss of Steve Austin (Lee Majors) and Jaime Sommers (Lindsay Wagner) in ...
(Chester Winslow very Ballou, Deborah Fallender (Julie Keen aquette and
Laurie Heineman Laurie Heineman (born August 4, 1948 in Chicago) is an American actress. She starred as Myra in the 1973 drama film '' Save the Tiger'' and as Sharlene Frame on the soap opera '' Another World'' (1975–77), for which she received Daytime Emmy Awa ...
(Donna MacKenzie tella Fleming. Directed by Edward M. Abroms from a teleplay by Stephen Downing, "What Happened to April" aired March 20, 1981.


Publication history

* 1966, New York: The
Viking Press Viking Press (formally Viking Penguin, also listed as Viking Books) is an American publishing company owned by Penguin Random House. It was founded in New York City on March 1, 1925, by Harold K. Guinzburg and George S. Oppenheimer and then acqu ...
, August 19, 1966, hardcover : In his limited-edition pamphlet, ''Collecting Mystery Fiction #10, Rex Stout's Nero Wolfe Part II'',
Otto Penzler Otto Penzler (born July 8, 1942) is an American editor of mystery fiction, and proprietor of The Mysterious Bookshop in New York City. Biography Born in Germany to a German-American mother and a German father, Penzler moved to The Bronx at ag ...
describes the
first edition The bibliographical definition of an edition is all copies of a book printed from substantially the same setting of type, including all minor typographical variants. First edition According to the definition of ''edition'' above, a book pr ...
of ''Death of a Doxy'': "Yellow boards, gray cloth spine; front cover printed with a blue design; spine printed with blue lettering; rear cover blank. Issued in a red, black, and white dust photographic wrapper which has been die cut to reveal the blue printed design on the front cover. … The dust wrapper is noteworthy for its ugliness and the singularly misconceived design element of the pointess die cut." : In April 2006, ''Firsts: The Book Collector's Magazine'' estimated that the first edition of ''Death of a Doxy'' had a value of between $100 and $200. The estimate is for a copy in very good to fine condition in a like dustjacket. * 1966, New York: Viking ( Mystery Guild), October 1966, 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).Penzler, Otto, ''Collecting Mystery Fiction #9, Rex Stout's Nero Wolfe Part I'', pp. 19–20 * 1966, ''Toronto Star Weekly'', abridged, October 1966 * 1966, Toronto: Macmillan, 1966, hardcover * 1967, London:
Collins Crime Club Collins Crime Club was an imprint of British book publishers William Collins, Sons and ran from 6 May 1930 to April 1994. Throughout its 64 years the club issued a total of 2,012in "The Hooded Gunman -- An Illustrated History of Collins Crime ...
, June 5, 1967, hardcover * 1967, '' Argosy'', June 1967 (abridged) * 1967, New York: Bantam #F3476, August 1967, paperback * 1969, London: Fontana, 1969, paperback * 1995, New York: Bantam Crime Line October 1995, paperback, Rex Stout Library edition with introduction by Sandra West Prowell * 2002, Auburn, California: The Audio Partners Publishing Corp., Mystery Masters July 2002, audio cassette (unabridged, read by Michael Prichard) * 2010, New York: Bantam Crimeline July 21, 2010,
e-book An ebook (short for electronic book), also spelled as e-book or eBook, is a book publication made available in electronic form, consisting of text, images, or both, readable on the flat-panel display of computers or other electronic devices. Al ...


References


External links

* * {{Nero Wolfe 1966 American novels American novels adapted into films Nero Wolfe novels by Rex Stout American novels adapted into television shows Viking Press books Novels about murder