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Too Many Clients

2007-12-18T22:32:54Z

72.208.215.49: /* Too Many Clients */

== Too Many Clients ==

The following is a review by me on this book and I have tried not to insert any spoilers but I have no idea what is considered spoilers. Read at your own risk!

Once again the impending doom of the depleted bank balance looms over the Brownstone household. So when the President of Continental Plastic Products shows up at the door claiming he is being followed to a compromising place, Archie, with his usual impulsiveness, accepts the job of discovering the culprit. Yet when the president turns up dead at the mysterious address to which he claimed he was being followed to, things end up getting really sticky. As the investigation delves deeper, Wolfe and Archie will end up with too many clients and not at all a favorable possibility of receiving pay from either.

Yet another wonderful treasure in the Nero Wolfe corpus, as our favorite detective and his handsome assistant unravel the mystery that leads them into the promiscuous love life of the victim. With the discovery of a gaudy love nest and several perturbed mistresses, the story does not disappoint in humor and quirky antics. The wit of Stout’s writing becomes apparent in the tongue and cheek dialogue between the characters, whether it be the naïve but dependable Fred Durkin or the shrewd newspaper hound Lon Cohen. Whether one enjoys the whodunit aspect of the series, there is no doubt that the comedic imagination of Rex Stout is always appreciated. Through all the clients that Archie meets up with during the investigation, it is clear that the scenes will leave you laughing by the end of each chapter. When Wolfe and Archie end up having to keep the love nest a secret from their friends and foes the police, things become a delightful race to solve the mystery as you expect Cramer or Stebbins to come blustering in on our detectives at any moment!

Of course, the hilarity isn’t the only aspect of the story that draws our attention, but also the character building subtleties that we have all grown to adore. Archie becomes personally interested in helping his very own pair of clients, which spurs on the chivalrous heart of our favorite detective hero! Wolfe’s understated paternal influence over his assistant becoming an obvious impact upon Archie’s dexterity guided by experience. Too Many Clients shares this insightful look into the private lives of these two very mulish characters in only a way Rex Stout could weave it; of which no Nero Wolfe novel could ever be complete without.

In the end of this wonderful novel the question is will the fat genius be able to balance his client’s interests, diverting the police, and solving the murder to a satisfactory conclusion? The reveal will not leave you disappointed, and you will find yourself enjoying every page until the very end!

--[[User:Goodwingrad|Goodwingrad]] 21:25, 18 December 2007 (CET)

Talk:Too Many Clients

2007-07-20T22:00:00Z

72.208.215.49: /* Archie speaking of Fred Durkin. Chapter 12 pg. 146. */

[[Category:Rex Stout novels]][[Category:Nero Wolfe mysteries]][[Category:Nero Wolfe novels]]
{{TOC-right}}
<div style="font-size:1.25em; font-weight: normal; padding-bottom: 1.0em; font-style: italic">by '''[[Rex Stout]]''' (1960)</div>

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==Archie and Fritz Chapter 1 pg. 7-8. ==

“Having noticed that we haven’t had a client worth a damn for nearly six weeks, you want to know if we have one now, and I don’t blame you. It’s possible but not likely. It looks like more peanuts. You may have to invent a dish for a king made of peanut butter.”

“Not impossible, Archie. The problem would be to crack the oil. Not vinegar; it would take too much. Perhaps lime juice, with or without a drop or two of onion juice. I’ll try it tomorrow.”

--[[User:Goodwingrad|Goodwingrad]]

== Archie and Lon Cohen Chapter 2. pg. 12-13. ==

“I’m writing it now: ‘Nero Wolfe, private eye extraordinary, was plunging into the Yeager murder case more than two hours before the body was discovered in an excavation on West Eighty-second Street. At five-five P.M. his lackey, Archie Goodwin, phoned the Gazette office to get-“

“You’ll eat it. The whole world knows I’m not a lackey, I’m a flunky, and the idea of Nero Wolfe plunging.”

--[[User:Goodwingrad|Goodwingrad]]

== Archie and Lon Cohen ib., pg. 18. ==

“If you will forget about my curiosity about Yeager until further notice, I’ll put you on my Christmas card list. This year it will be an abstract painting in twenty colors and the message will be ‘We want to share with you this picture of us bathing the dog, greetings of the season from Archie and Mehitabel and the children.’”

“You haven’t got a Mehitabel or any children.”

“Sure, that’s why it will be abstract.”

--[[User:Goodwingrad|Goodwingrad]]

== ib., pg. 19. ==

The reading light in the wall above and behind his [Wolfe] left shoulder was the only one on in the room, and like that, with the light at that angle, he looks even bigger than he is. Like a mountain with the sun rising behind it.

--[[User:Goodwingrad|Goodwingrad]]

== Chapter 3 pg. 27. ==

He [Wolfe] was standing before the mirror on the dresser, knotting his four-in-hand. Since he always goes from his room to the roof for his morning two hours in the plant rooms I don’t know why he sports a tie - maybe being polite to the orchids.

--[[User:Goodwingrad|Goodwingrad]]

== Archie speaking of Maria Perez ib., pg. 31. ==

She turned back to me, graceful as a big cat, and stood there straight and proud, not quite smiling, her warm dark eyes as curious as if she had never seen a man before. I knew damn well I ought to say something, but what? The only thing to say was “Will you marry me?” but that wouldn’t do because the idea of her washing dishes or darning socks was preposterous.

--[[User:Goodwingrad|Goodwingrad]]

== Chapter 4 pg. 42 ==

“Are you Nero Wolfe’s Archie Goodwin?”

“No. I’m my Archie Goodwin.”

--[[User:Goodwingrad|Goodwingrad]]

== Archie and Fred Durkin ib., pg. 49. ==

“Eighty-second Street,” he said, “Murder. What was his name? Yeager.”

“You read too much and you’re morbid and you jump to conclusions. Pack your bag and button your lip.”

--[[User:Goodwingrad|Goodwingrad]]

== Archie speaking of Maria Perez ib., pg. 49. ==

Looking at her, any man alive would have thought, What the hell, I could wash the dishes and darn the socks myself.

--[[User:Goodwingrad|Goodwingrad]]

== Archie and Fred Durkin. ib., pg. 50. ==

“Your new home,” I told him. “I do hope you’ll be happy here. The idea is, you take your pick from the pictures. Something like the Mountain Room at the Churchill with live trout and you choose the one you want for lunch. I strongly recommend the one over there sitting on the rose bush. If she can stand thorns she can stand you.”

“You know, Archie, I’ve always wondered why you didn’t marry. How long have you had it?”

“Oh, ten years, I guess. I have others here and there around town.”

--[[User:Goodwingrad|Goodwingrad]]

== Nero Wolfe. Chapter 5 pg. 54. ==

“A modern satyr is part man, part pig, and part jackass. He hasn’t even the charm of a 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 his 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 blower 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.”

--[[User:Goodwingrad|Goodwingrad]]

== Chapter 6 pg. 68. ==

“I haven’t described Maria at length and don’t intend to, but when I start marrying she will be third on the list and might even be first if I didn’t have prior commitments. She may be part witch but she has not been debauched. If and when she orgies with a satyr he’ll be leaning gracefully against a tree with a flute in his hand.”

--[[User:Goodwingrad|Goodwingrad]]

== Nero Wolfe Chapter 7 pg. 80. ==

“Like doctors, lawyers, plumbers, and many others, I get my income from the necessities, the tribulations, and the misfortunes of my fellow human beings.”

--[[User:Goodwingrad|Goodwingrad]]

== Chapter 9 pg. 101. ==

At the meeting of these two, Wolfe and Cramer; naturally I’m not an impartial observer. Not only am I committed and involved; there is also the basic fact that cops and private detectives are enemies and always will be. Back of the New York cop are the power and authority of 80 million people; back of the private detective is nothing but the right of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness, and while that is a fine thing to have it doesn’t win arguments. But though I’m not impartial I am an observer, and one of the privileges of my job is to be present when Cramer walks into the office and aims his sharp gray eyes at Wolfe, and Wolfe, his head cocked a little to the side, meets them. Who will land the first blow, and will it be a jab, a hook, or a swing?

--[[User:Goodwingrad|Goodwingrad]]

== Nero Wolfe & Archie Goodwin in chapter 10, page 128 <ref>Page references follow the 1994 Bantam Books Crime Line edition (The Rex Stout Library); the novel is 207 pages long in that edition.</ref> ==

<span class="par">¶</span>  “You're incorrigibly mulish<ref>Compare [[Quotations:If_Death_Ever_Slept#Nero_Wolfe_in_chapter_5.2C_page_64|''If Death Ever Slept'', quote from page 64]]</ref>.”

“Yes, sir. Same to you.”  <span class="par">¶</span>

--[[User:Faterson|Faterson]]

== Archie speaking of Fred Durkin. Chapter 12 pg. 146. ==

The difference in the way he takes Wolfe and the way he takes me is not based on experience. Up in the bower, getting it only from me, he had suspected that I was perching him far out on a limb and he didn’t like it. Now, with Wolfe, there was no question of suspecting or not liking. He had got the idea somehow, long ago, that there was absolutely no limit to what Wolfe could do if he want to, so of course there was no risk involved. I would like to be present to see his face if and when Wolfe tells him to go to Moscow and tail Khrushchev.

--[[User:Goodwingrad|Goodwingrad]]

== Archie and Purley Stebbins Chapter 14 pg. 180 ==

“So you’re coming down town or you’re under arrest as a material witness.”

“Am I under arrest?”

“No. I said ''or''.”

“It’s nice to have a choice.” I got a quarter from my pocket, flipped it in the air, caught it, and looked at it. “I win. Let’s go.”

--[[User:Goodwingrad|Goodwingrad]]

== Chapter 15 pg. 184. ==

“There were spots. I refused to sign a statement.”

“That was wise. Satisfactory. Mrs. Yeager told me of your impromptu explanation to Mr. Stebbins. She was impressed. Satisfactory.”

Two satisfactories in one speech was a record. “Oh,” I said, “just my usual discretion and sagacity. I was either that or shoot him.”

--[[User:Goodwingrad|Goodwingrad]]

Talk:Too Many Clients

2007-07-20T21:59:19Z

72.208.215.49: /* Chapter 9 pg. 101. */

[[Category:Rex Stout novels]][[Category:Nero Wolfe mysteries]][[Category:Nero Wolfe novels]]
{{TOC-right}}
<div style="font-size:1.25em; font-weight: normal; padding-bottom: 1.0em; font-style: italic">by '''[[Rex Stout]]''' (1960)</div>

<div style="font-size:1.6em; font-weight: bold; padding-bottom: 0.0em; padding-top: 0.5em">Want to Add Your Own Quotation to This Webpage?</div>

<div style="padding-bottom: 2.0em; padding-top: 0.5em"><span style="font-size:1.2em">'''It's so simple!'''</span> Just press the tab with '''[http://avenarius.sk/index.php?title=Quotations:Too_Many_Clients&action=edit&section=new the <span style="font-size: 1.5em">+</span> sign]''' at the top of this webpage, and off you go!</div>

<div style="font-size:1.4em; font-weight: bold; padding-bottom: 0.0em; padding-top: 0.5em">Want to Comment on This Work or Quotations from it?   <span style="font-size:0.65em">([http://avenarius.sk/forum/viewtopic.php?t=457 forum link])</span></div>

<div style="padding-bottom: 1.0em; padding-top: 0.5em"><span style="font-size:1.25em">'''Post your feedback [http://avenarius.sk/forum/posting.php?mode=reply&t=457 HERE]''', '''or use [http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Help:Footnotes footnotes]''' directly within the body of the quotations listed below.)</span></div>

<div class="comments">Comments</div>
{{Comments}}

==Archie and Fritz Chapter 1 pg. 7-8. ==

“Having noticed that we haven’t had a client worth a damn for nearly six weeks, you want to know if we have one now, and I don’t blame you. It’s possible but not likely. It looks like more peanuts. You may have to invent a dish for a king made of peanut butter.”

“Not impossible, Archie. The problem would be to crack the oil. Not vinegar; it would take too much. Perhaps lime juice, with or without a drop or two of onion juice. I’ll try it tomorrow.”

--[[User:Goodwingrad|Goodwingrad]]

== Archie and Lon Cohen Chapter 2. pg. 12-13. ==

“I’m writing it now: ‘Nero Wolfe, private eye extraordinary, was plunging into the Yeager murder case more than two hours before the body was discovered in an excavation on West Eighty-second Street. At five-five P.M. his lackey, Archie Goodwin, phoned the Gazette office to get-“

“You’ll eat it. The whole world knows I’m not a lackey, I’m a flunky, and the idea of Nero Wolfe plunging.”

--[[User:Goodwingrad|Goodwingrad]]

== Archie and Lon Cohen ib., pg. 18. ==

“If you will forget about my curiosity about Yeager until further notice, I’ll put you on my Christmas card list. This year it will be an abstract painting in twenty colors and the message will be ‘We want to share with you this picture of us bathing the dog, greetings of the season from Archie and Mehitabel and the children.’”

“You haven’t got a Mehitabel or any children.”

“Sure, that’s why it will be abstract.”

--[[User:Goodwingrad|Goodwingrad]]

== ib., pg. 19. ==

The reading light in the wall above and behind his [Wolfe] left shoulder was the only one on in the room, and like that, with the light at that angle, he looks even bigger than he is. Like a mountain with the sun rising behind it.

--[[User:Goodwingrad|Goodwingrad]]

== Chapter 3 pg. 27. ==

He [Wolfe] was standing before the mirror on the dresser, knotting his four-in-hand. Since he always goes from his room to the roof for his morning two hours in the plant rooms I don’t know why he sports a tie - maybe being polite to the orchids.

--[[User:Goodwingrad|Goodwingrad]]

== Archie speaking of Maria Perez ib., pg. 31. ==

She turned back to me, graceful as a big cat, and stood there straight and proud, not quite smiling, her warm dark eyes as curious as if she had never seen a man before. I knew damn well I ought to say something, but what? The only thing to say was “Will you marry me?” but that wouldn’t do because the idea of her washing dishes or darning socks was preposterous.

--[[User:Goodwingrad|Goodwingrad]]

== Chapter 4 pg. 42 ==

“Are you Nero Wolfe’s Archie Goodwin?”

“No. I’m my Archie Goodwin.”

--[[User:Goodwingrad|Goodwingrad]]

== Archie and Fred Durkin ib., pg. 49. ==

“Eighty-second Street,” he said, “Murder. What was his name? Yeager.”

“You read too much and you’re morbid and you jump to conclusions. Pack your bag and button your lip.”

--[[User:Goodwingrad|Goodwingrad]]

== Archie speaking of Maria Perez ib., pg. 49. ==

Looking at her, any man alive would have thought, What the hell, I could wash the dishes and darn the socks myself.

--[[User:Goodwingrad|Goodwingrad]]

== Archie and Fred Durkin. ib., pg. 50. ==

“Your new home,” I told him. “I do hope you’ll be happy here. The idea is, you take your pick from the pictures. Something like the Mountain Room at the Churchill with live trout and you choose the one you want for lunch. I strongly recommend the one over there sitting on the rose bush. If she can stand thorns she can stand you.”

“You know, Archie, I’ve always wondered why you didn’t marry. How long have you had it?”

“Oh, ten years, I guess. I have others here and there around town.”

--[[User:Goodwingrad|Goodwingrad]]

== Nero Wolfe. Chapter 5 pg. 54. ==

“A modern satyr is part man, part pig, and part jackass. He hasn’t even the charm of a 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 his 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 blower 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.”

--[[User:Goodwingrad|Goodwingrad]]

== Chapter 6 pg. 68. ==

“I haven’t described Maria at length and don’t intend to, but when I start marrying she will be third on the list and might even be first if I didn’t have prior commitments. She may be part witch but she has not been debauched. If and when she orgies with a satyr he’ll be leaning gracefully against a tree with a flute in his hand.”

--[[User:Goodwingrad|Goodwingrad]]

== Nero Wolfe Chapter 7 pg. 80. ==

“Like doctors, lawyers, plumbers, and many others, I get my income from the necessities, the tribulations, and the misfortunes of my fellow human beings.”

--[[User:Goodwingrad|Goodwingrad]]

== Chapter 9 pg. 101. ==

At the meeting of these two, Wolfe and Cramer; naturally I’m not an impartial observer. Not only am I committed and involved; there is also the basic fact that cops and private detectives are enemies and always will be. Back of the New York cop are the power and authority of 80 million people; back of the private detective is nothing but the right of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness, and while that is a fine thing to have it doesn’t win arguments. But though I’m not impartial I am an observer, and one of the privileges of my job is to be present when Cramer walks into the office and aims his sharp gray eyes at Wolfe, and Wolfe, his head cocked a little to the side, meets them. Who will land the first blow, and will it be a jab, a hook, or a swing?

--[[User:Goodwingrad|Goodwingrad]]

== Nero Wolfe & Archie Goodwin in chapter 10, page 128 <ref>Page references follow the 1994 Bantam Books Crime Line edition (The Rex Stout Library); the novel is 207 pages long in that edition.</ref> ==

<span class="par">¶</span>  “You're incorrigibly mulish<ref>Compare [[Quotations:If_Death_Ever_Slept#Nero_Wolfe_in_chapter_5.2C_page_64|''If Death Ever Slept'', quote from page 64]]</ref>.”

“Yes, sir. Same to you.”  <span class="par">¶</span>

--[[User:Faterson|Faterson]]

== Archie speaking of Fred Durkin. Chapter 12 pg. 146. ==

The difference in the way he takes Wolfe and the way he takes me is not based on experience. Up in the bower, getting it only from me, he had suspected that I was perching him far out on a limb and he didn’t like it. Now, with Wolfe, there was no question of suspecting or not liking. He had got the idea somehow, long ago, that there was absolutely n o limit to what Wolfe could do if he want to, so of course there was no risk involved. I would like to be present to see his face if and when Wolfe tells him to go to Moscow and tail Khrushchev.

--[[User:Goodwingrad|Goodwingrad]]

== Archie and Purley Stebbins Chapter 14 pg. 180 ==

“So you’re coming down town or you’re under arrest as a material witness.”

“Am I under arrest?”

“No. I said ''or''.”

“It’s nice to have a choice.” I got a quarter from my pocket, flipped it in the air, caught it, and looked at it. “I win. Let’s go.”

--[[User:Goodwingrad|Goodwingrad]]

== Chapter 15 pg. 184. ==

“There were spots. I refused to sign a statement.”

“That was wise. Satisfactory. Mrs. Yeager told me of your impromptu explanation to Mr. Stebbins. She was impressed. Satisfactory.”

Two satisfactories in one speech was a record. “Oh,” I said, “just my usual discretion and sagacity. I was either that or shoot him.”

--[[User:Goodwingrad|Goodwingrad]]