THE MOTHER HUNT

Someone drops off an infant on the doorstep of a wealthy and attractive widow. She hires Nero Wolfe, the famed P.I., to ferret out the baby's mother. A couple of murders result from the investigation, placing the onus on Wolfe and his street-smart legman, Archie Goodwin, to nab the killer. When reading this and other Wolfe whodunits, one gets the distinct impression that Archie, for all his complaining, not only loves working for the obese orchid-growing P.I., but gets a huge charge from writing about their cases. One gets none of that from listening to Michael Prichard's oral renderings of Stout's oeuvre for Audio Editions. He is as flat as a pancake, not even bothering to look up the pronunciation of some of Wolfe's less familiar expressions. To borrow one of Wolfe's MORE familiar terms--Pfui! Y.R. (c) AudioFile 2003, Portland, Maine [Published: FEB / MAR 03]