Death of a Demon

Plot summary

Lucy Hazen disappoints Archie when she puts on an act. She takes a gun from her purse, puts it on Wolfe's desk, and announces that she's not going to use it to shoot her husband. She had seemed straightforward enough when she phoned for an appointment, and also when she came to the door. But now she gets dramatic, and neither Wolfe nor Archie likes it.

However, Mrs. Hazen soon gets back on track. Her husband of two years, a public relations counselor named Barry Hazen, has turned out to be a controlling psychopath. She despises him. In recent weeks she has been plagued by thoughts of shooting him with the gun he keeps in a bedside table. To put a stop to the thoughts, and deter herself from following through on them, she has come to Wolfe to confess beforehand, and brought along her husband's gun for emphasis. So doing, she thinks, means that she would not be able to get away with killing him, and she will stop dreaming about it.

Having unburdened herself, she asks to see the orchids. Wolfe loves to show them off, so he accompanies her to the plant rooms for a tour. While they're gone, Archie tunes the radio to the midday news, and hears that the body of a man identified as Barry Hazen has been found in an alley, shot in the back and dead for several hours.

When Wolfe and Mrs. Hazen return from the plant rooms, Archie tells them what he has just learned. Mrs. Hazen's reaction is so profound – the blood leaves her face faster than Archie has ever seen – that Archie is convinced of her innocence. She wants to hire Wolfe to advise her, but first Wolfe needs to know more, and he has questions.

He learns that she last saw her husband the night before. They had a dinner party for four of Hazen's clients and Theodore Weed, who works for Hazen writing copy. After dinner, Hazen dismissed his wife, saying that they were going to discuss business. The Hazens used separate bedrooms, so that was the last she saw of her husband.

Wolfe won't as yet accept a job from Mrs. Hazen, and tells her to wait and see what the police turn up. She leaves, but Wolfe insists that she relinquish the gun that she brought. Archie takes it to the basement and fires a bullet into a mattress to get a sample.

Then Cramer arrives. After some preliminary hostilities, Wolfe gives Cramer the bullet that Archie shot using Mrs. Hazen's gun. He suggests that Cramer compare it with the bullet that killed Mr. Hazen. By now Cramer is puce in the face; he has no choice but to leave with the bullet and without either Wolfe or Archie.

Archie spends several nervous hours. He is waiting to hear from Cramer regarding the bullet. If it matches the one that killed Hazen, there are two problems: it will mean that Archie has tampered with evidence by shooting the gun as well as keeping it from Cramer, and it will implicate Mrs. Hazen in the murder. It turns out that Mrs. Hazen is already implicated enough that the police are holding her for questioning. Nathaniel Parker is sent to represent her, and returns with Mrs. Hazen's authorization to enter the Hazen house and locate a metal box that her husband once showed her. Its existence is consistent with Wolfe's, and Archie's, conjecture that Hazen was blackmailing his clients.

Archie goes to the house, and finds the Hazens' dinner guests there, searching for the box. Archie gets it, and takes them and the box to Wolfe. Wolfe puts the screws to them by offering to sell them the contents of the box for one million dollars. They have 24 hours to come up with the money, or the box goes to the police.

When Cramer finally returns to the brownstone, it is with the news that the police have found a gun that, ballistics analysis shows, killed Hazen. And Cramer has a real bombshell: the gun was found in Hazen's abandoned car, and the Hazens' maid saw it in Hazen's bedroom the morning of the murder. So the gun that Lucy brought with her didn't kill Hazen, and Archie and Wolfe wonder where it came from.

Cast of characters

Nero Wolfe — The private investigator

Archie Goodwin — Wolfe's assistant (and the narrator of all Wolfe stories)

Lucy Hazen — Wolfe's client, newly widowed by her husband's murder

Barry Hazen — Public relations counselor, apparent blackmailer, and murder victim

Jules Khoury, Mrs. Victor Oliver, Ambrose Perdis, Mrs. Henry Talbot — Clients of Hazen's firm, who pay him much more than his services are worth

Theodore Weed — Employed as a copy writer by Mr. Hazen

Inspector Cramer — Representing Manhattan Homicide

"Death of a Demon"

1961, The Saturday Evening Post, June 10 + June 17 + June 24, 1961

1974, Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine, October 1974 (as "The Gun Puzzle")

1977, Ellery Queen's Anthology, Fall–Winter 1977 (as "The Gun Puzzle")

1977, Ellery Queen's Faces of Mystery, New York: Davis Publications, 1977, hardcover (as "The Gun Puzzle")

Homicide Trinity

1962, New York: The Viking Press, April 26, 1962, hardcover

Contents include "Eeny Meeny Murder Mo", "Death of a Demon" and "Counterfeit for Murder".In his limited-edition pamphlet, Collecting Mystery Fiction #10, Rex Stout's Nero Wolfe Part II, Otto Penzler describes the first edition of Homicide Trinity: "Blue cloth, front cover stamped in blind; spine printed with deep pink; rear cover blank. Issued in a mainly blue dust wrapper."In April 2006, Firsts: The Book Collector's Magazine estimated that the first edition of Homicide Trinity had a value of between $150 and $350. The estimate is for a copy in very good to fine condition in a like dustjacket.

1962, Toronto: Macmillan, 1962, hardcover

1962, New York: Viking (Mystery Guild), August 1962, hardcover

The far less valuable Viking book club edition may be distinguished from the first edition in three ways:

1963, London: Collins Crime Club, February 18, 1963, hardcover

1966, New York: Bantam #F-3118, February 1966, paperback

1993, New York: Bantam Crime Line ISBN 0-553-23446-3 August 1993, paperback, Rex Stout Library edition with introduction by Stephen Greenleaf

1997, Newport Beach, California: Books on Tape, Inc. ISBN 0-7366-4062-2 October 31, 1997, audio cassette (unabridged, read by Michael Prichard)

2010, New York: Bantam Crimeline ISBN 978-0-307-75599-5 July 7, 2010, e-book

Nero Wolfe (CBC Radio)

"Death of a Demon" was adapted as the 12th episode of the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation's 13-part radio series Nero Wolfe (1982), starring Mavor Moore as Nero Wolfe, Don Francks as Archie Goodwin, and Cec Linder as Inspector Cramer. Written and directed by Toronto actor and producer Ron Hartmann, the hour-long adaptation aired on CBC Stereo April 3, 1982.