“Nero Wolfe towers over his rivals. . . . He is an exceptional character creation.”—New Yorker What do a Wild West lynching and a respected English nobleman have in common? On the surface, absolutely nothing. But when a young woman hires his services, it becomes Nero Wolfe’s job to look deeper and find the connection. A forty-year-old pact, a five-thousand-mile search, and a million-dollar murder are all linked to an international scandal that could rebound on the great detective and his partner, Archie, with fatal abruptness. “It is always a treat to read a Nero Wolfe mystery. The man has entered our folklore.”—The New York Times Book Review A grand master of the form, Rex Stout is one of America’s greatest mystery writers, and his literary creation Nero Wolfe is one of the greatest fictional detectives of all time. Together, Stout and Wolfe have entertained—and puzzled—millions of mystery fans around the world. Now, with his perambulatory man-about-town, Archie Goodwin, the arrogant, gourmandizing, sedentary sleuth is back in the original seventy-three cases of crime and detection written by the inimitable master himself, Rex Stout.

レックス・スタウトが生んだ名探偵ネロ・ウルフ。本作『ゴムの紐』は、西部の盟約が時を超えて現在を縛り上げる、強靭な構成が真骨頂です。安楽椅子に鎮座するウルフの知性と行動派アーチーが放つ洒脱なユーモアの対比は、単なる謎解きを超えた至高の人間ドラマを紡ぎ出しています。 映像版では二人の掛け合いが視覚的に補完されますが、原作テキストに潜む洗練された文体と行間の緊迫感は唯一無二です。活字で味わうウルフの偏屈な哲学は、彼の天才性をより深く読者の心に刻みます。映像で魅了された者こそ、この原典に触れることで作品が持つ真の芳醇さを五感で体感できるはずです。