Trio for Blunt Instruments

Trio for Blunt Instruments is a collection of Nero Wolfe mystery novellas by Rex Stout, published in 1964 by the Viking Press in the United States and simultaneously by MacMillan & Company in Canada. The book comprises three stories:

"Kill Now—Pay Later", serialized in three issues of The Saturday Evening Post
"Murder Is Corny", previously unpublished; the last Nero Wolfe novella to be written, and the last published in Stout's lifetime
"Blood [Will Tell (short story)|Blood Will Tell]", first published in ''Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine''

Reviews and commentary

Jacques Barzun and Wendell Hertig Taylor, A Catalogue of Crime — Of these, the first is a compendium of all the author's merits—a fast tale of double murder, drama, conflict with officialdom, banter about love, and a violent ending on Wolfe's premises, where the vulnerable heroine is a refugee. The second has agricultural elements that do not go well with the quasi-sexual drama; and the third is a premeditated crime rather simply untwisted. Archie is good throughout."
Anthony Boucher, The New York Times — This time he offers, in addition to two solidly admirable specimens, one that may well be the finest Nero Wolfe case of the past decade. By no means fail to read "Blood Will Tell" — and look forward to even more impressive mastery from Mr. Stout when he reaches his eighties.
John Canaday, The New York Times — Rex Stout, who gives his birth date as Dec. 1, 1886, is either the victim of false records or the beneficiary of a biological aberration, eternal youth. His new New Wolfe threesome, Trio for Blunt Instruments, keeps him right where he has been for so long — on top of the heap and the liveliest of all detective fiction writers.

Publication history

1964, New York: The Viking Press, April 24, 1964, hardcover

In his limited-edition pamphlet, Collecting Mystery Fiction #10, Rex Stout's Nero Wolfe Part II, Otto Penzler describes the first edition of Trio for Blunt Instruments: "Orange cloth, front cover and spine printed with blue rules; the front cover printed with blue lettering; the spine is printed with black lettering; rear cover blank. Issued in a mainly red pictorial dust wrapper."
In April 2006, Firsts: The Book Collector's Magazine estimated that the first edition of Trio for Blunt Instruments had a value of between $150 and $300. The estimate is for a copy in very good to fine condition in a like dustjacket.
The "concept-driven" dustjacket designed by Bill English was cited by graphic design scholar Steven Heller for its spare use of color, sans-serif typography and use of the entire front and back cover area.

1964, New York: Viking, June 1964, 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.
* Book club editions are sometimes thinner and always taller than first editions.
* Book club editions are bound in cardboard, and first editions are bound in cloth.
1965, London: Collins Crime Club, January 1965, hardcover
1967, New York: Bantam #F-3298, January 1967
1997, New York: Bantam Crimeline January 1, 1997, paperback
1997, Newport Beach, California: Books on Tape, Inc. October 31, 1997, audio cassette
2010, New York: Bantam Crimeline July 21, 2010, e-book