Stout, Rex -- The Silent Speaker (1946)

D

Given that this is Stout’s return to Wolfe and Archie after WWII, this is very uninspired.  It’s far too long (270 pp.) and static—much coming and going, and conversation—but the story doesn’t move or develop.  Absence of clues = lack of progression = reader loses interest.  It picks up from Ch. 29 (Wolfe’s explanation of what Phoebe was up to) and the very funny nervous breakdown, but ends badly with a completely uninteresting murderer—similar solution to The Second Confession (under-hand dealing).  Depressingly empty.

Nick Fuller.

See also: http://at-scene-of-crime.blogspot.com/2011/12/silence-for-murderer.html