Samiksha Jaiswal (Editor)

Please Pass the Guilt

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Cover artist
  
Abner Graboff

Language
  
English

Publication date
  
September 1973

Originally published
  
September 1973

Preceded by
  
Death of a Dude

Genre
  
Detective fiction


Country
  
United States

Series
  
Nero Wolfe

Media type
  
Print (Hardcover)

Author
  
Rex Stout

Followed by
  
A Family Affair

Publisher
  
Viking Press

Please Pass the Guilt t1gstaticcomimagesqtbnANd9GcR0e6YxxFkwuFbsu

Similar
  
Rex Stout books, Nero Wolfe mystery books, Mystery books

Please Pass the Guilt is a Nero Wolfe detective novel by Rex Stout, published by the Viking Press in 1973. Unusually for a Nero Wolfe story, which mostly take place very near the time of publication, this novel is set in 1969, though it was originally published in 1973.

Contents

Plot introduction

Wolfe picked up the check and held it out. "Take it. You have wasted your time and mine. You want a miracle, and miracles are not in my repertory. Give me the receipt."
"My god," she said, "you are highhanded. What can they tell you?"
"I don't know, and I need to know. If there is a fact that will help me to do what you want done, I want it. If you think that I may inadvertently disclose what you have told me, even a hint of it, if you think me capable of such ineptitude, you were a ninny to come to me at all."

As a favor to Dr. Edwin Vollmer, Wolfe agrees to find information about a case from Vollmer's friend's crisis intervention center. A man with the alias "Ronald Seaver" has attended the clinic, given no information, but spoken of having blood on his hands no one can see. Through trickery, Wolfe and Goodwin learn that this man is actually Kenneth Meer, an employee at the CAN broadcast network. An executive at the network, Peter Odell, has been killed in a bomb attack. Odell's widow believes that one of his rivals murdered him, and hires Wolfe to find proof.

Publication history

  • 1973, New York: The Viking Press, September 1973, hardcover
  • In his limited-edition pamphlet, Collecting Mystery Fiction #10, Rex Stout's Nero Wolfe Part II, Otto Penzler describes the first edition of Please Pass the Guilt: "Black boards, red cloth spine; front and rear covers blank; spine stamped with gold. Issued in a mainly black and brown pictorial dust wrapper." In April 2006, Firsts: The Book Collector's Magazine estimated that the first edition of Please Pass the Guilt had a value of between $60 and $100. The estimate is for a copy in very good to fine condition in a like dustjacket.
  • 1973, New York: Viking (Mystery Guild), November 1973, hardcover
  • The far less valuable Viking book club edition may be distinguished from the first edition in three ways:
  • 1974, New York: Bantam #Q-8472, October 1974, paperback
  • 1974, London: Collins Crime Club, 1974, hardcover
  • 1974, London: Book Club Associates, 1972
  • 1975, Glasgow: Fontana #3668, 1975, paperback
  • 1995, New York: Bantam Books ISBN 0-553-76308-3 January 2, 1995, paperback
  • 1999, Newport Beach, California: Books on Tape, Inc. ISBN 0-7366-4456-3 March 8, 1999, audio cassette (unabridged, read by Michael Prichard)
  • 2010, New York: Bantam ISBN 978-0-307-75610-7 July 21, 2010, e-book
  • References

    Please Pass the Guilt Wikipedia