Fer-de-Lance (novel) - Plot Introduction

Plot Introduction

”Archie, you have heard me say that I am an actor. I am afraid I have a weakness for dramatic statement. It would be foolish not to indulge it when a good opportunity is offered. There is death in this room."

— Nero Wolfe in Fer-de-Lance, chapter 15

The first Nero Wolfe mystery opens with a scene showing Nero Wolfe deciding to give up bootleg beer, and sending out Fritz to purchase every beer that can be purchased legally for him to select a replacement. The date set in the novel is given as June seventh, Wednesday, which makes the year 1933. The Cullen-Harrison Act had just became law on April 7, 1933 legalising "3.2 beer" (3.2% alcohol by weight, approximately 4% alcohol by volume), a point mentioned in passing in the novel.

While sampling the beers with Goodwin, none of which Nero Wolfe seems genuinely surprised to find is swill, Fred Durkin arrives and asks sheepishly if Wolfe would meet Maria Maffei, a friend of his wife for a case. Maria's brother, Carlo, a metal worker, was unemployed (it was during the Depression) and was supposed to return to Italy. He suddenly seemed to come into money, and then disappeared mysteriously. Impressed by Maria Maffei, Wolfe instructs Goodwin to make enquiries. Wolfe and Goodwin soon learn that Carlo's disappearance somehow involves the death of a college president while playing golf in Westchester County, New York.

Although the characters are not as fully developed as they would become later in the series, the essential characteristics of Wolfe, Archie, and several other regulars already are clearly present.

As the first novel in the series, Fer-de-Lance introduces Nero Wolfe, Archie Goodwin, Fritz Brenner, Saul Panzer, Fred Durkin, Orrie Cather and other characters who recur throughout the entire corpus. Its descriptions of Wolfe's Manhattan brownstone conflict with the established architecture set down by Stout in all subsequent novels and stories, so may be viewed as somewhat non-canonical. Likewise, the characters have slightly different personalities. Wolfe's manner of speaking is notably more baroque and long-winded than in later stories.

The story's title is the common name of Bothrops atrox, a venomous South American snake. Fer-de-Lance is French for spearhead, literally iron of the lance.

In Fer-de-Lance, Stout reused a key plot point relating to the murder weapon that he had used in his early mystery The Last Drive, which was serialized in Golfers Magazine in 1916. This story had been forgotten for many years—it is not mentioned in Stout's biography or in bibliographies of his works—until it was rediscovered in 2011.