A Reading Recommendation

When I was in college, I took a fun elective course called The Mystery Novel. I don't remember any of the authors I was introduced to in that class--except one. One of the books for assigned reading was entitled "Too Many Cooks" by Rex Stout. And it was through that experience that I was introduced to the wonderful world of Nero Wolfe and Archie Goodwin. If you've never read a Nero Wolfe mystery, you don't know what you've missed. Allow me to give you a brief introduction...

Wolfe is brilliant and brusque. He lives in a brownstone on West 35th Street in Manhattan. He is a confirmed bachelor and has a strict daily routine which he follows almost without exception. He enjoys a refined and comfortable lifestyle which is supported by the expensive fees he charges his clients to solve crimes, mysteries, and problems that they put upon his desk when they have nowhere else to turn. His reputation throughout New York City and the surrounding region precedes him.

While Wolfe is the genius, he would be helpless without his right arm--Archie Goodwin. Where Wolfe is cerebral but barely moves a muscle, Archie is the one who chases down leads, gathers evidence, and reports his findings back to Wolfe. Where Wolfe has an almost abject fear of being alone with a woman, Archie loves women, especially if they're comely, sharp, and have curves in all the right places. Where Wolfe is a confirmed gourmand, Archie is just as happy with a ham sandwich and a glass of milk.

What makes the Wolfe novels so much fun to read--aside from the way the mysteries are solved--is the witty, sometimes sarcastic dialogue and the entertaining way Archie guides us through the story as our first-person narrator. Another thing many readers will enjoy is that these novels are not dark, not 'hard-boiled'. They are written to entertain, not to expose the seamy side of society.

During his career, Stout wrote more than 70 Wolfe novels before his death in 1975. The Nero Wolfe corpus was nominated in 2000 as the Best Mystery Series of the Century by Boucheron, the largest mystery novel convention in the world.

If I've piqued your curiosity, go to amazon.com, type "Nero Wolfe" in the search bar, and pick out "Fer-de-Lance", which was Stout's first Nero Wolfe novel. Once you open it, you'll be hooked. And you can thank me later.