Sat 2 Jan 2016
Reviewed by William F. Deeck: REX STOUT – The Broken Vase.
Posted by Steve under Bibliographies, Lists & Checklists , Characters , Reviews[2] Comments
William F. Deeck
REX STOUT – The Broken Vase. Farrar & Rinehart, hardcover, 1941. Paperback reprints include: Dell #115, ca.1946; Pyramid R-1149, “A Green Door Mystery,” 1965; Bantam Crimeline, 1995.
At a friend’s behest, Tecumseh Fox contributed $2,000 to the purchase of a Stradivarius violin for “the next Sarasate.” Attending the premier performance of the violinist at Carnegie Hall, Fox finds it mildly enjoyable, but the music lovers are aghast at the performance. So, too, is the violinist, who, in front of witnesses, kills himself during the intermission.
The violin is stolen and then returned. Fox is asked to investigate the circumstances by the violinist’s rich patron and later is hired to find out who committed a murder.
On the cover of the [Pyramid] paperback the publisher says, “As great as Nero Wolfe.” Well, publishers will have their little drolleries. Nonetheless, while a Fox is not a Wolfe, this is a good, fair-play novel that should make the reader want to find the earlier Fox novels to find out more about this detective.
The Tecumseh Fox series —
Double for Death. Farrar & Rinehart, 1939.
Bad for Business. Farrar & Rinehart, 1940.
The Broken Vase. Farrar & Rinehart, 1941.
January 3rd, 2016 at 12:17 am
Some interesting facts about Tecumseh Fox, courtesy of Wikipedia. (I’ve never read any of the books.)
“Although the character’s name sounds native American, he is not. In Double for Death, he explains that his full name is William Tecumseh Sherman Fox, so he was supposedly named for the American Civil War general William Tecumseh Sherman. It seems probable that Stout chose this name in order to justify Fox’s nickname, “Tec,” which is also a slang term for detective. (A similar motive was presumably behind the naming of another Stout detective, the beautiful Theodolinda “Dol” Bonner.) The surname “Fox” was presumably chosen as an analogy to “Wolf(e).”
“Fox’s Westchester County is located in the same universe as Wolfe’s New York City. Even though the two men seem to be unaware of each other’s existence, both are acquainted with operatives from Bonner & Raffray and the Bascom Agency. Characters in both series dine at Rusterman’s, dance at the Flamingo Club, frequent the Churchill Hotel, read the Gazette, and drive Wethersill convertibles.”
January 3rd, 2016 at 12:58 am
Fox was an attempt by Stout to combine Wolfe and Archie in one person and get around some of the problems of having Wolfe bound to a chair and his office. The problem was that when you removed Wolfe’s eccentricities and Archie’s reaction to them all that was left was Stout’s workman like fair play plots.
The Fox novels are well written and I enjoyed them and would have read more, but even with Dol Bonner’s presence they are pale things compared to Wolfe and Archie.
In this period Stout experimented with other heroes but could not find the same success he had with Wolfe, not even with Dol Bonner in HAND IN GLOVE one of his best non Wolfe outings.
Fox is an attractive and likable sleuth but he never really comes alive and there is no sense of an actual person as there is with Wolfe. Fox is well worth meeting, but I can’t imagine anyone believing he could ever offer Wolfe and Archie any competition.
Part of the reason for the name had to do with Stout’s theory that part of Wolfe’s success lay in the name and the use of a similar letter structure to Sherlock Holmes (ero ole), where with Fox he wanted to play on Wolfe’s name, an animal and a leader as well as the TEC pun. Sadly the name is the most memorable thing about Fox.