History Literature / TheSilentSpeaker

* OneDegreeOfSeparation: The dead man's widow turns out to be the cousin of Wolfe's wartime associate General Carpenter.

* SeriousBusiness: The feud between the NIA and the BPR, which frequently goes beyond political, ideological and economic disagreements into intense and spiteful personal antipathy. One frequently gets the feeling that several members of either organisation would cheerfully and willingly become murder victims themselves if in doing so they could cause just the slightest bit of damage to the rival organisation.

* FatalFlaw: Phoebe Gunther is clever, and is able to give both Wolfe and especially Archie a run for their money. But while she's clever, she's not quite as clever as she thinks, and to add to that she's cocky, overconfident and a little bit smug about it. It comes back to bite her: [[spoiler: she pushes the killer too far in revealing what she knows, leading to her own murder. Plus, it's all but outright stated that Wolfe wasn't as fooled by her scheme as she thought, but simply went along with it out of respect for her and her goals.]]

* BlackmailBackfire: An interesting variation. [[spoiler: Phoebe Gunther has evidence that Alger Kates is the murderer and has using this knowledge to force him to return treasured items which he stole to cover his tracks to the victim's widow. Unfortunately, while her motives are more benevolent than most blackmailers, she still falls into the same trap that many a blackmailer of a murderer has in a murder mystery...]]

* FatalFlaw: Phoebe Gunther is clever, and is able to give both Wolfe and especially Archie a run for their money. But she's cocky, overconfident and a little bit smug, and it comes back to bite her: [[spoiler: she pushes the killer too far in revealing what she knows, leading to her own murder. Plus, it's all but outright stated that Wolfe wasn't as fooled by her scheme as she thought, but simply went along with it out of respect for her and her goals.]]

* HiddenInPlainSight: Wolfe and Cramer spend most of the investigation focused on a missing Stenophone cylinder hidden somewhere by Phoebe Gunther. After the search takes men from New York to Washington, the cylinder is found behind some books on a shelf ''[[spoiler:in Wolfe's own office]]''.

** Phoebe Gunther views Wolfe (unjustly) as a tool of her enemies the NIA And seems to hold a somewhat low opinion of his genius, working to thwart him in a manner which could be considered obstructive and humiliating. Wolfe doesn’t terribly mind though, expressing deep respect for her and actually working to honor her objective.

* TheMole: [[spoiler:Henry Warder, the vice president of Don O'Neill's firm who tipped the BPR off to his bribery out of moral concerns.]]

* ReverseMole: [[spoiler:Henry Warder, the vice president of Don O'Neill's firm who tipped the BPR off to his bribery out of moral concerns.]]

* ConvictedByPublicOpinion: Because Boone was murdered at an event they organized, and because there is a bitter public rancor between the BPR and the NIA, the public clearly takes the position that the NIA was involved in Boone's death somehow. [[spoiler: \This turns out to be a key part of the mystery; the missing cylinders were hidden precisely so that they would do as much public damage as possible before the person who hid them decided to reveal them in the interests of justice.]]

* SeriousBusiness: The feud between the NIA and the BPR, which frequently goes beyond political and economic ideological disagreements into intense and spiteful antipathy. One frequently gets the feeling that several members of either organisation would cheerfully and willingly become murder victims themselves if in doing so they could cause just the slightest bit of damage to the rival organisation.

* WorthyOpponent: Zigzagged. Wolfe suspected the killer from early on, but after the arrest, he calls him "a foolish and inadequate man but not intellectually to be despised. One item of his program might even be called brilliant."

* StarCrossedLovers: Nina Boone, the victim's niece, and Frank Erskine Jr., son of the NIA president, once had a romance, but it ended badly and she accused him of using her.

* {{Acrofatic}}: Inspector Ash has Wolfe arrested and tries to physically intimidate information out of him, clearly thinking that because he's fat he'll be a pushover. In the resulting scuffle that ensues, he gets his ass handed to him.
* AlmightyJanitor: Phoebe Gunther was merely Mr. Boone's confidential secretary but was considered to be the second in command of the BPR in all but name, and gives Wolfe a run for his money in trying to find out what she knows.
* ConvictedByPublicOpinion: Because Boone was murdered at an event they organized, and because there is a bitter public rancor between the BPR and the NIA, the public clearly takes the position that the NIA was involved in Boone's death somehow. [[spoiler: This turns out to be a key part of the mystery; the missing cylinders were hidden precisely so that they would do as much public damage as possible before the person who hid them decided to reveal them in the interests of justice.]]
* CorruptCorporateExecutive: Most if not all of the NIA members to appear have at least the potential air of corruption (and arrogance) about them but the only one confirmed to be stooping to criminal behavior is [[spoiler:Don O'Neil]].

* NervousWreck: The NIA's press secretary, Hattie Harding has ''not'' been having an easy time trying to spin the fallout of the murder in their favor, and it shows.

* OneDegreeOfSeparation: The dead man's widow turns out to be the cousin of Wolfe's war-time associate General Carpenter.
* PoliceAreUseless: Played with; Inspector Cramer himself is competent, but his superiors definitely aren't; Cramer, like Wolfe, clearly realises that the missing dictaphone cylinder is the key to solving the murder and focuses primarily on trying to find it, but his superiors are fretting about the public outrage over the crime and view that as a frivolous obsession [[spoiler: and so suspend him.]] And [[spoiler: Cramer's replacement]], Inspector Ash, turns out to be an authoritarian thug who's one big brilliant idea is to get Wolfe into police headquarters and try to physically bully information out of him.
* RankUp: Solomon Dexter Boone's deputy, takes over the BPR with Boone's death. NIA man Winterhoff suggests this as a [[KlingonPromotion possible motive]].
* ReverseMole: [[spoiler: Warder, the O'Neil employee who tipped the BPR off to his bribery out of moral concerns]].
* SmallRoleBigImpact: Mr. Warder only appears in the last couple chapters of the novel, and his existence was barely even alluded to before that but it was [[spoiler: his revealing Kates treachery to Boone that caused him to both make the recording which cracks the case, and confront Kates, leading to the murders]].
* StarCrossedLovers: Cheney Boone's niece, and Erskine Jr. of the NIA once had a romance but it ended badly and she accused him of using her.
* SuicidalOverconfidence: For all of her more admirable qualities, [[spoiler:Even the mruderer display bitterness and incredulity about how non-threatening Phoebe Gunther saw him as]].

* WorthyOpponent: Zigzagged; Wolfe suspected the killer from early on, but after his arrest does say that the killer was;
--> '''Wolfe:''' A foolish and inadequate man but not intellectually to be despised. One item of his program might even be called brilliant.

* TurnInYourBadge: [[spoiler:Cramer is briefly suspended by the NYPD after focusing his investigation entirely on the missing cylinder (the correct line of inquiry). After Wolfe hands Cramer the murderer, complete with confession and evidence, Cramer gets his desk back.]]

* ConvictedByPublicOpinion: Because Boone was murdered at an event they organised, and because there is a bitter public rancor between the BPR and the NIA, the public clearly takes the position that the NIA was involved in Boone's death somehow. [[spoiler: This turns out to be a key part of the mystery; the missing cylinders were hidden precisely so that they would do as much public damage as possible before the person who hid them decided to reveal them in the interests of justice.]]

* HiddenInPlainSight: Wolfe and Cramer spend most of the investigation focused on a missing Stenophone cylinder hidden somewhere by Phoebe Gunther. After the search takes men from New York to Washington, the cylinder is found ''[[spoiler:in Wolfe's own office]]''.

--->"He is at least more of a philosopher than you are. Bad as he is, he has the grace to accept the inevitable with a show of decorum. You, on the contrary, try to wiggle."

--->"Our literature needs some revision," [Wolfe] declared. "For example, 'dead men tell no tales.' Mr. Boone is dead. Mr. Boone is silent. But he speaks."
--->"Yep." I grinned at him. "The silent speaker."

* HiddenInPlainSight: Wolfe and Cramer spend most of the investigation focused on a missing Stenophone cylinder hidden somewhere by Phoebe Gunther. After the search takes men from New York to Washington, the cylinder is found ''[[spoiler:in Wolfe's own office]]''.

* DeadManWriting: [[spoiler:The missing cylinder contains a message from Boone to Phoebe Gunther detailing his discovery that Don O'Neill has been bribing Alger Kates for BPR information.]]