A review by jbleyle63
And Be a Villain by Rex Stout

5.0

A guest on a popular live radio program is poisoned and drops dead during the soda sponsor’s key promotional spot, a mid show segment when guests and hosts pop the tops on the advertised product and imbibe on air. This entry in the Nero Wolfe series opens a week following the dramatic death with Nero and Archie devising how to get in on the investigation to earn a badly needed healthy fee. A pleasurable plot which, as usual in Stout’s Nero Wolfe stories, is secondary to our protagonist’s verbal jousting and interactions.
This book begins what is known as the Zeck trilogy featuring a Moriarty-like nemesis.