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A hazing prank at Harvard left Paul Chapin disabled. Years later, two of the men responsible end up dead, and a series of poems promises continued retribution. Now the other men who hazed Paul are desperate for the protection of brilliant detective Nero Wolfe.

Is Paul Chapin exacting revenge on his former classmates, and can Nero Wolfe and his wise-cracking sidekick, Archie Goodwin, stop him before he kills again? Find out in Rex Stout’s The League of Frightened Men (1935).

Check out The Offical Nero Wolfe Society!
On X: @NeroWolfePack
Reach out to Ira: werowance@nerowolf.org

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Our special guest, Ira Brad Matetsky, joins Tea, Tonic & Toxin hosts Sarah and Carolyn to discuss The League of Frightened Men by Nero Wolfe. He has been the Werowance (President) of the Wolfe Pack, the international literary society for the Nero Wolfe stories by Rex Stout, since 2007.

Ira Matetsky has written a number of articles about Nero Wolfe and related topics and edited The Last Drive and Other Stories, a collection of some of Rex Stout’s earliest work, published by the Mysterious Press/Open Road in 2015.

He is also a Sherlockian and is invested as a member of the Baker Street Irregulars (“The Final Problem”) and the Adventuresses of Sherlock Holmes (“The Lawyer Whose Name Was Given in the Paper”).

By day he is a litigation partner at the law firm of Dorf Nelson & Zauderer LLP in New York City.

Rex Stout received the Mystery Writers of America Grand Master Award in 1959. In 2000, Bouchercon nominated him as Best Mystery Writer of the Century and the Nero Wolfe books as Best Mystery Series of the Century. The Wolfe Pack is the international literary society devoted to Nero Wolfe. Every year on the first Saturday in December, the Wolfe Pack holds a Black Orchid Banquet and presents the Nero Award & the Black Orchid Novella Award for excellence in the mystery genre.

Nero Wolfe Character Types

The Nero Wolfe and Archie Goodwin of A Family Affair (46th and last book) are essentially the same as the characters we first meet in Fer-de-Lance.

The books have a Golden Age sense of order/puzzles and the hardboiled American school inspired by Prohibition and the Depression. Wolfe and Archie have great chemistry.

Nero Wolfe seems to be a return, an extreme return, to the brilliant armchair amateur. But he has his trusty employee, Archie Goodman, who at once seems a hardboiled detective and a studious secretary. Is Stout blending approaches to detective fiction?

Evelyn Hibbard describes herself as “hard-boiled.” Archie is also hardboiled. Hardboiled (the boiling of an egg) was first used by Mark Twain in 1886 to mean “emotionally hardened.”

Archie Goodwin

Part hardboiled detective and man of action, part studious, live-in secretary and orchid cataloger. He observes but doesn’t get involved with women. A swallower of food, drinker of milk. Intense loyalty and frequent annoyance with his employer, Wolfe. He takes detailed notes in shorthand for Wolfe. He acts as Wolfe’s eyes and ears on the outside. He doesn’t read books. Strong work ethic: “[I’m] too conscientious. I love to do a good job more than anything else I can think of.”

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Thriller author James McLaughlin joins Sarah and Carolyn to discuss his book Bearskin.

McLaughlin is the author of Bearskin, published by Ecco/HarperCollins in 2018 and winner of the 2019 Edgar Award for Best First Novel.

Bearskin has been featured, mentioned, and reviewed in The New York Times (4 Writers to Watch, Bears and Poets, New Books We Recommend, and Best Crime Fiction), The Washington Post, USA Today, Entertainment Weekly, and Goodreads.

He’s currently working on a sequel to Bearskin.

Check out all the book and other items inspired by the conversation here.

Check out Jim's website at jamesamclaughlin.com

Rice Moore is just beginning to think his troubles are behind him. He’s found a job protecting a remote forest preserve in Virginian Appalachia where his main responsibilities include tracking wildlife and refurbishing cabins. It’s hard work, and totally solitary—perfect to hide away from the Mexican drug cartels he betrayed back in Arizona. But when Rice finds the carcass of a bear killed on the grounds, the quiet solitude he’s so desperately sought is suddenly at risk.

More bears are killed on the preserve and Rice’s obsession with catching the poachers escalates, leading to hostile altercations with the locals and attention from both the law and Rice’s employers. Partnering with his predecessor, a scientist who hopes to continue her research on the preserve, Rice puts into motion a plan that could expose the poachers but risks revealing his own whereabouts to the dangerous people he was running from in the first place.

James McLaughlin expertly brings the beauty and danger of Appalachia to life. The result is an elemental, slow burn of a novel—one that will haunt you long after you turn the final page.

James McLaughlin won the 15 Bytes Book Award for Fiction (Artists of Utah) and was a finalist for the 2019 Library of Virginia Literary Award in fiction, the 2019 Anthony Award for Best First Novel, and the 2019 Barry Award for Best First Novel.

Bearskin was included in Amazon’s Best Mysteries and Thrillers of 2018, Garden & Gun‘s Best Southern Books of 2018, and Southern Living’s Best Southern Books of 2018. It was a Barnes & Noble Discover Great New Writers selection and a Publishers Weekly Summer Reads staff

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Brooklyn-born New Jersey class-action attorney turned author Norman Shabel has written seven plays and eight novels. Three of his plays have been produced off Broadway in NYC, Philadelphia, and Florida.

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Prolific author and playwright, Normal Shabel had a difficult childhood. He grew up in a poor Jewish and Italian neighborhood called Brownsville in Brooklyn, NY. At the time, many immigrants as well as Jewish children like himself and people of color faced daily injustices. For example, he and his friends were beaten regularly by antisemitic gangs while walking up the stairs to enter his junior high school.

These early experiences led him to become a class action and personal injury plaintiff’s attorney as well as a criminal prosecutor. His eight crime novels are based on his 55 years as a practicing attorney and detail how such injustices play out in a courtroom.

His books offer a behind the scenes look at how lawyers navigate the prejudices and unconscious biases of judges and juries to get the best outcome for their clients. Reviewers have commented that only an attorney could have written some of the multifaceted courtroom scenes featured in his books.

The topic would be how the theme of injustice plays out in his books. He would discuss several of his books. One standalone interview just about his books would be great. What are some Saturday dates and times that you have available for a podcast interview for him? What is the name of the podcast again? Also, I will be out of pocket for the next two days, so, when you respond, please hit "reply all" to include my boss, Sharon, who is included here. Thanks so much.

• God Knows No Heroes – Based on the true case of a Rabbi in New Jersey that hired someone to murder his wife. Shabel was not his attorney, but he was a member of his congregation.
• Four Women – A depiction of the many women that Shabel represented over the years where builders were pushing them out of their homes so that they could make a profit.
• The Corporation – About the murder of corporate employees who were also stockholders in a company and could stop the merger of two very powerful companies. The merger was based on one of Shabel’s cases to show the corruption that exists when money and power are involved. However, the murders were artistic license.
• The Badger Game – Based on a true case where Shabel was the prosecutor who represented the State of New Jersey against accused murderers. It shows the prejudices, corruption, and thirst for power of the players, including judges and attorneys on both sides of the aisle. If the judge is biased against the defendant or his attorney, many decisions are in line with those prejudices.

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