Gambit by Rex Stout
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

"[...] at twenty minutes to ten, I stood in the alcove at the end of the hall next to the kitchen, observing through the hole in the wall, the cast that had been assembled for what I consider one of the best charades Wolfe has ever staged."

Well, I dare to disagree. This is my 10th book in the venerable Nero Wolfe series that I am reviewing on Goodreads and to me the most unremarkable one even if it marginally deals with chess, a topic that interests me quite a lot. I read the novel several weeks ago, did not have time to write the review, and now when I finally found a free hour I am unable to remember even the basic outline of the plot and have to skim the book again.

A president of a big corporation is in jail, charged with murder. Miss Blount, his 22-year-old daughter, hires Nero Wolfe to prove her father's innocence. The murder happened in a chess club when a chess prodigy who was playing twelve simultaneous blindfold games was poisoned having drunk hot chocolate. Miss Blount's father was apparently the only player who had an opportunity to administer the poison. The reader learns that Miss Blount offers $22,000 up front to entice Mr. Wolfe. Neat amount: twenty-two thousand dollars in 1962, when the book was published, would be worth about $180,000 in today's money!

Naturally, the events in the plot begin resembling a game of chess. The reader learns what a gambit is:

"It's an opening in which a player gives up a pawn or a piece to gain an advantage."

We have some reasonably relevant chess quotes and even Robert Fischer, the future (1972) world chess champion, is mentioned. I would have particular reasons to get interested in the novel as it was precisely in 1962 that I got seriously interested in chess and joined a chess club in Warsaw, Poland. In fact, the very next year I had an opportunity to meet the very same Robert Fischer, when he played few games in Warsaw.

Alas, the plot is quite predictable and the reader will likely lose interest quickly, as I did. As in all Nero Wolfe novels the writing has the specific old-style charm and of course Archie Goodwin is the most remarkable and unforgettable character, as opposed to the cliché of Mr. Wolfe. There are several neat pearl of wisdom scattered in the text, of which I will quote one:

"Nothing is impossible in the relations between men and women."

To sum up, I am unable to recommend the novel as it barely clears the two-star level. Even so, I will continue reading the series, in search of an installment as great as the magnificent Murder By the Book.

Two stars.

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