Nero Wolfe's "Gambit" Trivia Quiz

Answer: Burning a dictionary in his fireplace

Nero Wolfe was tearing pages out of the latest edition of "Webster's International Dictionary, Unabridged" and tossing them into the fire. What was the reason for Wolfe's apparent eccentric behavior? He thought it was guilty of deliberately murdering the English language.

Answer: Poisoned with arsenic

Paul Jerin's one talent was for playing chess, and he was in his element that night at the Gambit Club. Jerin was playing a mental marathon with twelve club members who had chess boards set up in another room. Four messengers carried the moves back and forth between Jerin and his opponents. Jerin's drink of choice was hot chocolate. Who could blame the police for thinking that his hot chocolate had been spiked with arsenic, but had it?

Answer: Matthew Blount

The messengers were Ernst Hausman, Charles Yerkes, Daniel Kalmus, and Morton Farrow. Each messenger was responsible for three tables. While Ernst Hausman was busy elsewhere, Matthew Blount took it upon himself to bring a tray of hot chocolate to Paul Jerin. When Jerin became ill, Blount took the cup and pot back to the kitchen and rinsed them out.

Answer: Sally Blount, Matthew Blount's daughter

Except for his genius at the chess board, Paul Jerin was going nowhere fast. He made his living writing greeting card rhymes and perfoming magic tricks at parties, so he was the last man that millionaire Mattew Blount, head of Blount Textiles, wanted for his daughter, Sally.

After Blount's arrest for Jerin's murder, Sally Blount hired Nero Wolfe to prove her father's innocence. She did not trust her father's lawyer, Paul Kalmus, to put on much of a defense, because Kalmus was in love with Sally's mother.

Answer: No

Ernst Hausman came to Nero Wolfe's office with an alibi scenario all figured out. He would give Wolfe $50,000.00, and Wolfe would offer $25,000.00 to Bernard Nash, one of the stewards at the Gambit Club, to say he had accidentally put arsenic in Paul Jerin's hot chocolate. Wolfe then could keep the other $25,000.00 as an easy fee.

While Wolf turned Hausman down flat, it made him wonder why Hauman made the offer in the first place. Remember that when "Gambit" was published in 1962, $50,000.00 was indeed a lot of money.

Answer: True

A new president of the bank was to be chosen at the next meeting of the Board, and Charles Yerkes knew that Matthew Blount was lending his support to another man. Although Yerkes told Nero Wolfe that it had not affected his friendship with Blount in the slightest, this did give him a very good motive. If Blount was in jail when the Board met, then Blount could not vote against Yerkes.

Answer: Morton Farrow

The only reason that Morton Farrow, who had a much higher opinion of his abilities than anyone else, was drawing a big salary at Blount Textiles was because Matthew Blount was married to his Aunt Anna. The other three men are private detectives featured in most of the Nero Wolfe mysteries.

Answer: His strangled body beside the couch

Sally Blount was sure that Daniel Kalmus had framed her father for Paul Jerin's murder. Nero Wolfe's plan was for Sally, who had been hiding out at Nero Wolfe's, and Archie Goodwin to search Daniel Kalmus's apartment for arsenic while Wolfe kept Kalmus occupied back at the brownstone. Archie found Kalmus, neatly strangled, beside the couch and sent Sally back to Wolfe's before calling the police.

Answer: Spiked Jerin's chocolate with a drug to befuddle him

Paul Jerin had beaten Matthew Blount one too many times at chess, and Blount decided to get even by pouring a harmless dose of choral hydrate and carbon tetrachloride into Jerin's chocolate to befuddle him. It was certainly childish, but it wasn't deadly. Jerin definitely died of arsenic poisoning, so Wolfe must find out who actually administered the deadly dose.

Answer: Dr. Avery did. He was in love with Matthew Blount's beautiful wife, Anna.

Daniel Kalmus was in on the joke on Jerin, and he knew the drug that Matthew Bount had slipped into Jerin's hot chocolate was not toxic. When Jerin started feeling sick, he was attended by Dr. Avery. When Kalmus realized that Avery was the only one who had an opportunity to give the arsenic to Jerin, Avery killed him, too. Like all great mysteries, "Gambit" had an abundance of suspects and possible motives. Why did Dr. Avery want Blount framed for Paul Jerin's murder? His motive was one of the oldest on the books--Avery wanted Blount's beautiful wife, Anna.

It took an elaborate gambit by Nero Wolfe that involved a blackmail ploy by Archie Goodwin to catch this tricky killer. Nero Wolfe and Arhcie Goodwin are the creations of American mystery writer, Rex Stout (1886-1975).

The first Nero Wolfe novel, "Fer-De-Lance" was published in 1934. Thank you for taking my quiz on Nero Wolfe's "Gambit".