A Right to Die

By: Rex Stout

Narrated by: Michael Prichard

When a bright young heiress with a flair for romance and one too many enemies is found brutally murdered, Nero Wolfe and his sidekick, Archie, find themselves embroiled in a case that is not as black and white as it first appears.



Susan Brooke has everything going for her. Men would have killed themselves to marry her, and, in fact, one did.



Susan came to New York to find love and fulfillment, and ended up dead on a tenement floor. The police say her black fiance did it, but Wolfe has other ideas. Before he's done, he'll prove that good intentions and bad deeds often go hand in hand and that the highest ideals can sometimes have the deadliest consequences.©1964 Rex Stout; (P)1997 Books on Tape

The one about race and phonology

Pop literature plays many roles. Both contemporary and vintage varieties offer entertaining distraction and escape. My current Nero Wolfe binge falls nearly under that category. But they also provide a useful cultural snap shot of their era. A Right To Die provides just such a snapshot, a capsule from a time not that long ago. While Rex isn’t attempting to write To Kill a Mockingbird or A Time to Kill, the case facing Nero & Archie could certainly qualify. It comes from a time when the hard ‘R was used frequently but just as frequently shunned. It was a time when conflicts against ignorance were nearly as common as they are today, and often more violent. We need tombs like this to be preserved as they are. To clean it up would be to deny the ugly scar upon this nation. And the mystery here is above average too. Even better, it’s solved with phonology.

Great story and performance

Rex Stout surely stuck his neck out when he wrote this book at that time. Even in today's time (or should I say "again in this time") it"s not popular to support groups which are not in the mainstream. Being in an interracial marriage myself I thoroughly enjoyed the story and of course Michael Prichard is a great performer. I probably would enjoy listen to him while he's reading the New York phone book if they still have it. Juergen Amling

Another Great Nero Mystery

Where does A Right to Die rank among all the audiobooks you’ve listened to so far?

This may not be the best of Stout's classics, but it is in the upper rankings.

Did the plot keep you on the edge of your seat? How?

Classic who dun-it..Kepps you guessing the whole way

What does Michael Prichard bring to the story that you wouldn’t experience if you just read the book?

Prichard, who does all the Nero Wolf mysteries, has a great range and makes all the characters shine. When I READ a Wolf mystery now..I hear Prichard in my head.

If you were to make a film of this book, what would be the tag line be?

While All May Have A Right To Live...Some Have A Right To Die

love it

I am a big fan of Michael Pritchard reading Nero Wolfe mysteries. listener must keep in mind when the books were written. they are not part of today's culture.

Sometimes they just get it right.

What did you love best about A Right to Die?

Faithfulness to the characters as written.

Who was your favorite character and why?

Archie Goodwin, of course.

Any additional comments?

Rex Stout was a master of detective fiction. His Nero Wolfe stories are all superb. Michael Pritchard does an excellent job capturing the nuances of the characters in his performance. The books and stories are all good reads, and Michael Pritchard's performances of them are equally good listens. No regrets in getting these.