Nero Wolf and Archie Goodwin are at it again in The Final Deduction. Not one of Stout’s best, a little nipping and tucking in the plot would have helped. This selection was studied by the Macabre group in Maryland that meets bi-monthly. If you know the geography of Maryland, we met at a restaurant by the water this month around Arnold. We missed our fearless leader and decided to ask for volunteers ahead of time for future meetings so no one person would be stuck leading the discussion.

I couldn’t help thinking about Sherlock Holmes when I was reminded of the selection, and there were hints about Agatha Christie in the book too. We were all a little disappointed that there weren’t enough suspects, and the red herrings weren’t followed up. Maybe he was a little rushed on this one.

The best unusual word, at least in my opinion, was thaumaturgury. It’s a good word to look up but might be hard to slip into a conversation. August’s selection will be Gambit.