Homicide Trinity

Homicide Trinity

First edition
Author	Rex Stout
Cover artist	Bill English
Language	English
Series	Nero Wolfe
Genre	Detective fiction
Publisher	Viking Press
Publication date	April 26, 1962
Publication place	United States
Media type	Print (hardcover)
Pages	182 pp. (first edition)
OCLC	1087613
Preceded by	The Final Deduction
Followed by	Gambit

Homicide Trinity is a collection of Nero Wolfe mystery novellas by Rex Stout, published by the Viking Press in 1962. The book comprises three stories:

• "Eeny Meeny Murder Mo", first published in Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine #220 (March 1962)
• "Death of a Demon", first serialized in three issues of The Saturday Evening Post (June 10, 17 and 24, 1961)
• "Counterfeit for Murder", first serialized as "The Counterfeiter's Knife" in three issues of The Saturday Evening Post (January 14, 21 and 28, 1961)

Publication history

• 1962, New York: The Viking Press, April 26, 1962, hardcover ^[1]

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." ^[2]

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. ^[3]

• 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:

• The dust jacket has "Book Club Edition" printed on the inside front flap, and the price is absent (first editions may be price clipped if they were given as gifts).
• Book club editions are sometimes thinner and always taller (usually a quarter of an inch) than first editions.
• Book club editions are bound in cardboard, and first editions are bound in cloth (or have at least a cloth spine). ^[4]

• 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

Author Rex Stout in 1973

References

1. Townsend, Guy M., Rex Stout: An Annotated Primary and Secondary Bibliography (1980, New York: Garland Publishing; ISBN   0-8240-9479-4), p. 86. John McAleer, Judson Sapp and Arriean Schemer are associate editors of this definitive publication history.
2. Penzler, Otto, Collecting Mystery Fiction #10, Rex Stout's Nero Wolfe Part II (2001, New York: The Mysterious Bookshop, limited edition of 250 copies), p. 14
3. Smiley, Robin H., "Rex Stout: A Checklist of Primary First Editions." Firsts: The Book Collector's Magazine (Volume 16, Number 4), April 2006, p. 35
4. Penzler, Otto, Collecting Mystery Fiction #9, Rex Stout's Nero Wolfe Part I, pp. 19–20

External links

Quotations related to Homicide Trinity at Wikiquote