This is book 42 of the "Nero Wolfe" series.

This note does not contain major spoilers for the book.

I seem to be picking random Nero Wolfe books for recreational reading. Maybe I should have done an actual readthrough. Oh well.

This one is fun. The use of "doxy" in the title is matched by its use in the book. There's even a discussion of the word and alternatives. It still sounds weirdly artificial to me; it's a word nobody uses naturally.

I'm quite amazed at how openly Wolfe talks to people about knowing they are murderers. And how twisted Stout is willing to make some characters. I don't think I really believe the extreme example of that from this book.

This edition has a really lousy cover, too. Bad photograph of something that I think is supposed to represent the marble ashtray that features in the first scene. But it's not an ashtray at all, and hardly looks like marble (due to severe color cast).

The copy I read is a Hennepin County Library reject, in paperback. I'm croggled that a paperback actually survived a trip through a public library system!