Please Pass the Guilt

by Rex Stout

Other authors: See the other authors section.

Series: Nero Wolfe (45)

Members	Reviews	Popularity	Average rating	Mentions
659	8	35,524	(3.7)	27
A bomb explodes in the desk drawer of a top TV executive. But was the death trap intended for him or for the man who opened the drawer? Each man had a host of enemies, so was it the ambitious business partner, the jealous wife, the office secretary, or the man with blood on his hands? Nero Wolfe finds himself up to his corpulent neck as he and Archie Goodwin sort their way through secrets, over-the-top ambition, and a long list of suspects to find the truth and the guilty party.… (more)

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4/9/22

laplantelibrary | Apr 9, 2022 |

This is kind of a weird one. It's such a late book in the series (first published in 1973) that the attempts to make it contemporary feel very strange - I mean, Stout was around 80 years old at this point, but he's still writing an Archie in his 30s, or maybe early 40s, and it just doesn't jibe as well as it did in the earlier books. The mystery itself is a good one, though.

JohnNienart | Jul 11, 2021 |

The mystery was good but some of the "modern" (1973) language and discussions were not what I expected from a Nero Wolfe book. None of it was offensive to me, just a great surprise. (

)

leslie.98 | Jun 3, 2020 |

When a bomb kills her husband a rich wife hires Wolfe and friends to find out why he was killed just before being considered to become the president of the company. (

)

LindaLeeJacobs | Feb 15, 2020 |

A bomb in an office desk explodes, but who is the intended target? Meals in Nero Wolfe's house play a prominent role, but Robert Parker's Spencer books are more appetizing. As another reviewer noted, the book was not as much fun as it should have been.
And there is no discussion of the fact that one of the characters decides that the best way for her husband to become the new head of the company is by lacing his rival's whiskey with LSD. (

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raizel | Jan 17, 2018 |

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Author name	Role	Type of author	Work?	Status
Stout, Rex	—	primary author	all editions	confirmed
Nyytäjä, Kalevi	Translator	secondary author	some editions	confirmed
Prichard, Michael	Narrator	secondary author	some editions	confirmed

▾Series and work relationships

Belongs to Series

Nero Wolfe (45)

Belongs to Publisher Series

Círculo del Crimen. Fórum (16)

SaPo (404)

Öölane (100)

Is contained in

Seven Complete Nero Wolfe Novels by Rex Stout

▾Awards and Honors

Notable Lists

New York Times Best Mysteries of the Year (1973)

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▾Common Knowledge

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Canonical title

Information from the Finnish Common Knowledge. Edit to localize it to your language.

Kuolema pöytälaatikossa

Original title

Please Pass the Guilt

Alternative titles

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People/Characters

Important places

New York, New York, USA

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Related movies

Epigraph

Dedication

First words

He grunted - the low brief rumble that isn't meant to be heard - turned his head to dart a glance at me, and turned back to Dr Vollmer, who was in the red leather chair facing the end of Wolfe's desk.

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(Click to show. Warning: May contain spoilers.)

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Wikipedia in English (1)

Please Pass the Guilt

▾Book descriptions

A bomb explodes in the desk drawer of a top TV executive. But was the death trap intended for him or for the man who opened the drawer? Each man had a host of enemies, so was it the ambitious business partner, the jealous wife, the office secretary, or the man with blood on his hands? Nero Wolfe finds himself up to his corpulent neck as he and Archie Goodwin sort their way through secrets, over-the-top ambition, and a long list of suspects to find the truth and the guilty party.

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From book back:

A bomb blows up in the desk of a top TV executive. Was it intended for him or the man who opened the drawer? They each had enemies enough to die a dozen times over. Was it the jealous wife or the ambitious partner? The secretary who got passed around like an inter-office memo? Or the man who couldn't wash the blood off his hands? Nero Wolfe didn't want any part of it - but he was up to his neck in the toughest case of his career.

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Legacy Library: Rex Stout

Rex Stout has a Legacy Library. Legacy libraries are the personal libraries of famous readers, entered by LibraryThing members from the Legacy Libraries group.

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