Death of a Doxy (1966)

Death of a Doxy is a Nero Wolfe detective novel by Rex Stout, first published by Viking Press in 1966.

Plot introduction

Orrie Cather, one of Wolfe's operatives, has been secretly seeing a wealthy man's kept mistress at her secret lovenest. He is arrested when she turns up dead.

Orrie is the only one of Wolfe's operatives to have the plot of two Stout books turn on his actions: Death of a Doxy and Stout's final work, A Family Affair.

Plot summary

Orrie is finally going to tie the knot. He is engaged to marry Jill Hardy, a stewardess. But for months, Orrie's also been keeping company with Isabel Kerr, an ex-showgirl. Orrie has some time available, because Jill works international flights. Isabel also has time available, because she no longer performs: rather, she occupies a plush apartment that is paid for by another gentleman friend who visits her just two or three times a week.

Isabel objects to Orrie's marriage plans. She has taken some of his personal and professional belongings and stashed them in her apartment. Isabel threatens to show them to Jill and thus quash the marriage. So, Orrie asks Archie to get into Isabel's apartment, find his possessions, and get them back. When Archie does enter the apartment, he finds not Orrie's belongings but Isabel's body. Archie withdraws to meet with Orrie, but otherwise keeps the news to himself.

Isabel's sister Stella later discovers the body. The police find Orrie's possessions in the apartment and arrest him on suspicion of murder. In a meeting to consider whether Orrie is guilty, Wolfe, Archie, and Fred are all unsure, but Saul—via some convoluted reasoning—concludes that he is innocent, and Wolfe undertakes to demonstrate it.

Wolfe must determine who knew about Isabel's apartment. Orrie has given Archie some names—Avery Ballou, who pays the bills, Stella Fleming and her husband Barry, and a nightclub singer named Julie Jaquette. Archie visits Stella and Barry, and learns that Stella is frantic to keep a lid on the nature of her sister's living arrangements. Stella's concern for Isabel's reputation is such that she tries to claw Archie's face when he refers to Isabel as a "doxy" (prostitute).

Archie corrals a reluctant Ballou, and Wolfe coerces his cooperation by threatening disclosure of his relationship with Isabel. It turns out that Ballou has already been subjected to blackmail, by someone named Milton Thales. Ballou thinks that Thales is really Orrie. Wolfe recognizes the name of an early Greek sage, Thales of Miletus. That sage was perhaps the first mathematician, pointing to the math teacher who was brother-in-law of Isabel. Wolfe assumes that he is Isabel's murderer.

Wolfe sends Saul to bring Julie Jaquette. When she dances into Wolfe's office, Miss Jaquette puts on a performance, first singing and then demanding to see Wolfe's orchids. She displays a cynicism regarding human behavior that Wolfe regards as similar to his own. Julie agrees to act as bait for the murderer and is nearly killed herself. For her protection, she is moved into the brownstone, where she helps Wolfe and Archie force Thales' hand. There is no trial, as he commits suicide.

Wolfe offers $50,000 cash for Julie’s assistance, which she uses to attend college. That is half of the fee from Ballou, as his name was not revealed to the police or to newspapers.

The unfamiliar word

"Like all of us, Wolfe has his favorite words, phrases, and sayings," wrote William S. Baring-Gould. "Among the words, many are unusual and some are abstruse."

Nero Wolfe's erudite vocabulary is one of the hallmarks of the character. Examples of unfamiliar words—or unfamiliar uses of words that some would otherwise consider familiar—are found throughout the corpus. Death of a Doxy contains several examples, including the following:

"Incumbency". Chapter 7; perhaps unfamiliar in the sense that Wolfe uses it: "Mr. Cather has worked for me, on occasion, for years, and I am under an incumbency."

"Strephon". Chapter 7. "Strephon is the lover of Urania in Sir Philip Sidney's Arcadia," wrote Rev. Frederick G. Gotwald in The Nero Wolfe Companion. "It became the conventional name for a lover in literature." Dating to 1580, the character later appears in Jonathan Swift's "Strephon and Chloe" (1731); Happy Arcadia (1872), a one-act musical play with libretto by W. S. Gilbert; and Gilbert and Sullivan's Iolanthe (1882).

"Juridically". Chapter 13. (This word also appears in adjectival form in The League of Frightened Men and Prisoner's Base.)

"Chaldean". Chapter 16.

Cast of characters

Nero Wolfe: The private investigator

Archie Goodwin: Wolfe's assistant (and the narrator of all Wolfe stories)

Orrie Cather: An operative frequently in Wolfe's employ, along with Saul Panzer and Fred Durkin. Orrie's activities in this book are very limited, but the plot centers on his dalliance with Isabel Kerr.

Jill Hardy: An airline attendant, then termed "stewardess", and Orrie's fiancée

Isabel Kerr: The murder victim, occupant of a plush apartment, of whom a newspaper wrote, "It does not appear that Miss Kerr was employed anywhere or engaged in any regular activity."

Stella Fleming: Isabel's sister, whose greatest fear is that Isabel's lifestyle will be publicized

Barry Fleming: Stella's husband, a mathematics professor

Avery Ballou: A CEO, a devotee of the works of Rudyard Kipling, and the source of Miss Kerr's rent and other living expenses

Julie Jaquette (stage name of Amy Jackson): A successful nightclub singer and Isabel Kerr's best friend

Inspector Cramer: Representing Manhattan Homicide

Reviews and commentary

Jacques Barzun and Wendell Hertig Taylor, A Catalogue of Crime—First-rate Stout done at the age of 80. The tightness of the plot, the wit, and the people are done with sureness and speed, so that the book, though short, gives one the sense of having lived through a long stretch of tense expectation. New roles, too, for Orrie Cather, Cramer, and Wolfe in relation to a murder which they are not asked to investigate. Wolfe gets his $50,000 fee, which one hopes he splits with the author.