Four short stories with Nero Wolf and Archie Goodwin. I like the longer books rather than the short stories. These four stories did not give me the satisfaction of watching Nero and Archie outwit the police and solve the murders. Three of the stories revolve around holidays and the last is based on Cramer's quote. I liked Murder is No Joke the best because it showed more of Archie and Nero figuring out what was wrong with a series of events in the story

bookshelves: film-only, summer-2013, published-1953, mystery-thriller, series, north-americas

 

 

Nero Wolfe was almost as famous for his wealthy clients and extravagant fees as for his genius at detection. So why has he accepted a case for $4.30? And why have the last two people to hire him been ruthlessly murdered? Wolfe suspects the answers may lie in the story of a twelve-year-old boy who turns up at the door of his West Thirty-fifth Street Brownstone. In short order, Wolfe finds himself confronted by one of his most perplexing and pressing cases, involving a curious set of earrings shaped like spiders dipped in gold. The case is all boiling down to a strange taste of greed—and a grumpy gourmand's unappeasable appetite for truth.

TV seriesGreat fun!

Seventy-four books! That's 74 books written by Rex Stout and I had never heard of him until recently. Where have I been?

Just to make an easy intro, here's a quote from Wikipedia. Yes, I know you can't believe everything on Wiki but this is probably correct: "The Nero Wolfe corpus was nominated Best Mystery Series of the Century at Bouchercon 2000, the world's largest mystery convention, and Rex Stout was nominated Best Mystery Writer of the Century." And I had never heard of him!

My first book read was Fer-de-Lance which described Nero Wolfe, P.I., in detail. His story is told by his associate, Archie Goodwin. Associate doesn't describe at all what Archie, who is also a P.I., does for his employer, Wolfe.

I usually like to read series in order but with the majority of these 74 mysteries being Nero Wolfe, I just didn't want to do that. With this, my third book, I've found that they can be read out of order comfortably although I would start with Fer-de-Lance because it's so descriptive of the routine which is important in the life of Wolfe and Archie. Then you can skip all over the years...from 1934 to 1985 reading Archie's stories.

The books start off fast and just don't slow down. Every page seems to have something important to contribute and Wolfe's ability figure out who the culprits are, is extraordinary. How Wolfe comes to his conclusions are similar to another of my very favorites, Sherlock Holmes. Readability A+, suspense A+, and humor, Archie's a riot st times!