This week, we feature a close look at how species are named, a legendary (fictional) detective’s first case, and the brilliant history of a World War II code.
Fiction Nero Wolfe Begins
‘Fer-de-Lance’
By Rex Stout
There’s so much pleasure that comes from experiencing a detective’s first case. This is what you get with “Fer-de-Lance,” a story involving a deadly snake—the first case in the successful Nero Wolfe series that set the standard for the famous armchair detective.
Crimeline, 1934, 304 pages Myth, History, and Adventure
‘The King Must Die’
By Mary Renault
In this recreation of the Minoan Age and the tale of Theseus and the Minotaur, Renault excels, as she did in several of her historical fictions, in recreating the ancient Greek world. Here we follow Theseus as he grows to young manhood and into a hero who eventually confronts the Minotaur on Crete. Loyalty, betrayal, courage, the passions of life and love, and personal sacrifice mark Renault’s superb recreation of this legend. The book ends with Theseus’s safe return to Athens, having slain the beast….