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The Second Confession (The Rex Stout Library: a Nero Wolfe Mystery)
Product Group: Book
Publisher: Bantam (1995-05-01)
ISBN: 0553245945
EAN: 9780553245943
Dewey Decimal #: 813.52
Mass Market Paperback: 256 pages
Release Date: 1995-05-01
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Editorial Reviews
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Product Description
When a millionaire businessman hires the sedentary detective to snoop on his daughter's boyfriend, Wolfe finds himself caught in a labyrinthine case involving drugged drinks, murderous debutantes, and a gangland boss. Reissue.
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Customer Reviews
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Good book, key 2nd part of the Zeck trilogy
Rating  (4)
Date: 2007-07-23
2 out of 2 customers found this reveiw helpful
The Second Confession is another in the long line of Nero Wolfe novels. The story begins with a man coming to Wolfe and asking him to prove that the man his daughter is dating is a communist so he can force the two to break up. Wolfe wisely amends the terms of the deal by opening it up to include any facts that would make him unacceptable to the daughter rather than limiting it to communism. When he begins digging into the man's past, it raises the ire of a man named Arnold Zeck (who previously appeared in And Be a Villain (Crime Line) (Crime Line)). Zeck is a powerful crime lord reminiscent of Professor Moriarty and when Wolfe fails to stop investigating he has the orchid room destroyed by machine gun fire to make his point. From here, there are many twists and turns until the mystery is solved and justice is served.
Archie sparkles as always while investigating first the background and then the murder of the possible communist with gangster ties. When he tries to slip a mickey into the drink of one suspect so he can search the guy's room, he gets a nasty surprise that is so entertaining that it alone is worth buying the book for.
Some reviewers suggest that the mere investigation of someone's possible status as a communist makes this book dated. I really don't see that. By this definition, any old detective story is dated because they don't have cell phones, hair and fiber analysis, etc. All stories set during WWII would be dated by mere mention of Nazis. That's just silly. It is one thing for a story to be clearly set in a past time, which this one is. As long as the story itself still works and is entertaining than I personally do not consider it dated.
While I would not rate this as one of the very best Nero Wolfe novels, it is far from the worst. The story moves along nicely and there is a good deal of the trademark humor that makes the series so enjoyable. It is also the second of three Arnold Zeck books and this one is referred to quite often in the third part, In the Best Families (Crime Line). If you are interested in reading that book, you would do well to read this one first.
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Weak but still good
Rating (4)
Date: 2007-07-10
3 out of 3 customers found this reveiw helpful
James Sperling's younger daughter has expressed an interest in a young man named Louis Rony and Sperling doesn't like him. He is convinced that Rony is a communist and to a dedicated wealthy capitalist like Sperling, being a communist is about the worst sin a man is capable of committing. He wants Wolfe to find sufficient proof so that he can get his daughter to drop Rony. Wolfe is reluctant to take the case but in the end he does
An acquaintance of Wolfe objects to his taking the case and uses machine guns to send a message to Wolfe through his orchard room. Although the damage is extensive, Wolfe never runs away from a case but he is in luck. Mr. Rony, the target of his investigation manages to get himself killed at Mr. Sperling's house while Archie is visiting. The case suddenly changes as Wolfe's friend no longer objects to the investigation and in fact supports it. But who killed Mr. Rony? Sperling wants to know because it happened in his home and his family members are suspected by the police.
The fun in this one is Archie's flirting with Madeline, the older daughter of Sperling. Madeline and Archie have a mutual attraction that is fun to follow as it develops and causes problems for Archie before Rony's death because one fall-back plan was to get the younger daughter, Gwen, to dump Rony in favor of Archie. All of this becomes moot, of course, when Romy is killed with Nero Wolfe's car.
The problems in this story have to do with the mystery although you can ignore the mystery and the story is fine. But what is Sperling's wife and son searching for in Rony's room? And what does it have to do with the mystery? There a few other red herrings that are never explained but I'll skip them so as not to reveal too many clues. Overall, I would say that this is one of the weaker stories I have read so far. But it is still a quick and fun read. Stout at his worst is still better than a lot of other writers at their best.
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Wow! I didn't see this one coming
Rating (4)
Date: 2006-10-29
2 out of 3 customers found this reveiw helpful
When the identity of the killer was revealed, I actually gasped aloud. I had two suspects in mind, and it was neither of them. But then, when you go over the plot and events, it makes perfect sense.
In addition to careful plotting, this book has all the other elements that make us love this series. Archie is by turns wry, pouty, clever, conceited and always very funny. Wolfe is as self-involved as ever -- though this time he reveals a bit of self-revelation, too.
The book is true to its time (the late 1940s, the dawn of the 1950s). There's a lot of "red menace" talk, but that didn't detract from the story for me. In fact, I thought it was important. As we look at how hysterical a previous generation was when confronted with a threat to our way of life, we may wish to consider the way we are responding today, in a new millenium, to a similar situation.
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A gangland boss threatens Nero Wolfe
Rating  (5)
Date: 2006-04-19
Rex Stout's THE SECOND CONFESSION receives a fine uninterrupted continuation by pairing Los Angeles actor Michael Prichard with another fine Nero Wolfe mystery: this revolving around a warning shot to Wolfe from a gangland boss. His investigation of a lawyer boyfriend of a millionaire's daughter may be placing his own life in jeopardy.
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Cut Rex Some Slack...
Rating  (3)
Date: 2005-09-07
4 out of 4 customers found this reveiw helpful
Some of the reviews here disparage Rex Stout's "pandering" to the Red Menace thinking of 1949. Let's put this into perspective...
Long before it was fashionable or even easy to represent for civil rights, Rex had Nero Wolfe honoring people of all races. Nero never generalized about (we'd now use the term "stereotyped") people with one key exception: Rex, a devoted husband and father of women, had Nero suspecting and disparaging women as flighty, treacherous and dangerous.
So here Nero accepts a commission to prove that Louis Rony is a Communist. In all truth, the way this is treated in the story Nero might as well have been asked to prove Rony was a philatelist. It's a matter for factual establishment or disestablishment...
To place this book's purported view of Communism as outweighing Stout's lifelong commitment to freedom of speech and expression is illogical.
And, please, don't forget how this book ends. That, too, puts things into an important perspective.
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Retail Price: $6.50
Amazon.com's Price:$0.78
That's 88% Off!
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