I’m not sure why, but doing reviews for any of my favorite writer’s, such as Rex Stout, seems much more difficult then doing reviews for writer’s with whom I’m not as familiar or don’t admire quite as deeply. Part of the problem is that if I give my honest opinion of any of Mr. Stout’s books in the Nero Wolfe series it would be filled with nothing but superlatives and compliments. But then, that’s not bias, Mr. Stout was just that good. Certainly some books within the series are better then others, for example I’ve always thought Gambit was not as strong a book as In The Best Families or and The Doorbell Rang. Much of this is just personal taste I’m sure, but there’s no doubt that all of the Nero Wolfe books written by Mr. Stout are vastly superior to the bulk of detective fiction, past and present, currently being read and The Mother Hunt is well up to Rex Stout’s high standards.The premise of The Mother Hunt is simple; someone leaves an infant on the doorstep of a very wealthy widow with a note saying the woman’s recently deceased husband fathered the child. The woman hires Nero Wolfe and Archie to find the infant’s mother so she can determined if the child truly is her late husband’s. As Nero Wolfe and Archie begin to discover the truth murder follows murder with Wolfe alternating between hunting for the baby’s mother, investigating the murders and worrying that Archie is finally going to be snagged into matrimony by the baby’s rich, single and very attractive step-mom. There are a few weaknesses in The Mother Hunt, for example, I felt that the killer’s motive for committing the first murder was very, very weak. In addition, the final denouement of the killer was not as climatic as with some of Mr. Stout’s other work. And, as with most of Mr. Stout’s novels, as opposed to his short stores which are some of the best detective puzzles ever written, The Mother Hunt is not a puzzle meant to be solved by the reader. But then, the purpose of Mr. Stout’s Nero Wolfe novels isn’t the mystery, any more then the mystery is why people continue to read Sherlock Holmes. The purpose is to enjoy Mr. Stout’s wonderful writing style and dry wit, the new and interesting characters he introduces, such as the "button fiend" who appears in The Mother Hunt and finally, and most importantly, to enjoy the unique relationship between Nero Wolfe and Archie Goodwin.
Average Grade: A+
