Ao longo da história, o leitor sente que este é um caso que envolve a vingança pessoal do detetive, concretizando-a, precisamente pelo trabalho de campo que realiza.

Por todos estes motivos, este é um livro atípico de Nero Wolfe, mas em que se perceciona melhor o retrato pessoal do homem.The two fly to Europe, making their way to Bari and taking temporary shelter in a house owned by one of Telesio's friends. Telesio arranges for a guide to ferry them across the Adriatic; from there, the two hike through the foothills of Lovćen and eventually secure a ride to Rijeka Crnojevića and then Podgorica. Jubé Bilic, a college student, drives them to Podgorica and drops them off at the office of Gospo Stritar, the local police chief. Wolfe gives a fake name and passes himself off as a Montenegro native who has lived abroad for many years and is now returning to decide which side to support in the struggle over Yugoslavia's future, and Archie as his American-born son (to explain his inability to speak Serbo-Croat). Tecumseh Fox mystery first published in the 1940 anthology The Second Mystery Book; later rewritten as a Nero Wolfe novella, " Bitter End" [1] :21

Forget about solving all these crimes; the signal triumph here is (spoiler) the heroine’s survival. A self-invited guest is an abomination, but there is no alternative for me.” Rex Stout, Death of a Dude 15. Death Times Three

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Time reviewer J.F. Powers gave the book a favorable review, indicating that "even veteran aficionados will be hypnotized by this witty, complex mystery." [1] Publication history [ edit ] Stout, Rex (1914). A Prize for Princes. New York: Carroll & Graf Publishers [1994]. ISBN 0786701048.

Stout had another wish, as well. In 1973, he gave an interview to Publishers Weekly and said, “The only thing I want is something I can’t have; and that is to know if, a hundred years from now, people will still buy my books.” Dr. Johnson said: “Such excess of stupidity is not in nature.” Do you think Archie Goodwin should write and talk like a grade-school English teacher? Having written nearly three million of his words I know quite well how he handles them. Not a single one of the changes you suggest makes any sense…..Detectionary — Wolfe adopts a disguise to deal with sinister international intriguers and to cope with an enemy to whom murder is trivial. [2] Anyone familiar with Nero Wolfe knows that he rarely leaves his brownstone on West 35th Street in New York City. On the rare ocassions he does it usually revolves around food (e.g. Too Many Cooks) or orchids (e.g. Some Buried Caesar). Even then it requires goading from his confidential assistant, Archie Goodwin. Mood Whiplash: Wolfe and Archie's solemn tragical reflection about the murder of a close friend and major recurring character is humorously interrupted when Archie observes that Wolfe needs directions to find the Manhattan morgue despite the decades he's spent solving murders.

This is a very unusual move for Wolfe, because, as previously noted, he hates going anywhere. Normally, he can’t abide vehicles, as expressed graphically in Some Buried Caesar (1939)—”My distrust and hatred of vehicles in motion is partly based on my plerophony that their apparent submission to control is illusory and that they may at their pleasure, and sooner or later will, act on whim”—and in The Red Box—“’Sir, I would not enter a taxicab for a chance to solve the Sphinx’s deepest riddle with all the Nile’s cargo as my reward.’ He sank his voice to an outraged murmur. ‘Good god. A taxicab.’” Abridged as "Dark Vengeance" in The American Magazine (June 1939); republished as The Mountain Cat Murders [1] :16–17 Mystery with a murder method that foreshadows that used in Fer-de-Lance; serialized in six issues [11] [12] If this is your first Nero Wolfe story, read but withhold judgement and read another story then decide. When choosing your first story I suggest you stay way from the books that contain several of his short stories. You cannot get the total atmosphere of the inhabitants of the brownstone; Archie Goodwin (who 'writes' the stories), Fritz, the cook, Theodor the orchid nurse of Wolfe's 10,000 plants in the greenhouse on the roof, Inspector Cramer, Saul Panzer, and much more.

It is always a treat to read a Nero Wolfe mystery. The man has entered our folklore. - The New York Times Book Review It is always a treat to read a Nero Wolfe mystery. The man has entered our folklore.”— The New York Times Book Review After high school, he concluded, like Archie, that college had little to offer him, joined the Navy and was assigned to Teddy Roosevelt’s yacht, but ultimately decided it wasn’t for him, bought himself out and spent five years roaming around the country: “I saw every goddamn state and must have had at least 150 jobs in 150 different cities.” That was the same year as his last book, A Family Affair. The plot of that book tied in tightly with Watergate and “the skullduggery of Richard Nixon and his crew.” A few years earlier, in 1971, Stout had said in an interview, “One trouble with living beyond your deserved number of years is that there’s always some reason to live another year. And I’d like to live another year so that Nixon won’t be President. If he’s re-elected, I’ll have to live another four years.”