A brief overview of the Nero Wolfes series by Rex Stout:
Nero Wolfe is a genius who supports himself (and his household) as a private detective. Archie Goodwin, the narrator of the stories, is both his assistant and a private investigator, and he does most of the legwork. Nero Wolfe's main interests are good food, raising orchids, and reading books. Usually, he will avoid working on a case unless he needs the money to pay the bills.
Recently I completed reading the three novellas in Three for the Chair by Rex Stout. Back in 2025, I reviewed the second story in that book, "Immune to Murder." Now that I have read the two other stories, I think they are also excellent stories.
The first story in the book was "A Window for Death."
Bert Fyfe's father died when he had pneumonia and Bert was accused of his murder. Members of his family testified at the trial. He was acquitted but he was very bitter and left town. His family had not seen him for 20 years when he returned, wealthy after striking it rich in uranium mining. Now Bert has died in similar circumstances as his father, and some members of his family want to know if it was murder. Wolfe proceeds to interview the people involved with the incident.
Rex Stout occasionally included romance in his Nero Wolfe novels and stories, and this one includes a romance, as much of one as you can have in 50 pages. It is a minor part of the story, but it makes for a nice ending.
The last story in the book is "Too Many Detectives."
Archie Goodwin is the narrator of all of the Nero Wolfe novels and short stories. He begins this story with these sentences:
"I am against female detectives on principle. It's not always and everywhere a tough game, but most of the time it is, with no room for the friendly feelings and the nice little impulses...
However, there are times when a principle should take a nap, and that was one of them. Of the seven private detectives present in the room, including Nero Wolfe and me, two were women, seated in a corner, side by side."
He then continues to describe Theodolinda (Dol) Connor, who runs her own detective agency, and Sally Colt, her employee.
In this story, the seven private detectives have been summoned to Albany for an inquiry into their use of wiretapping by the state of New York. Nero Wolfe is disgruntled because he and Archie have been forced to go to Albany rather than be interviewed in New York City, where they live. He is further incensed when a man that he once did a wiretapping job for is found dead in a nearby office, and he and Archie are arrested. Within a few hours they get out on bail ($20,000 apiece), and in their hotel room they proceed to work with the other five detectives to figure out who killed the dead man.
Along the way, Archie and Wolfe both change their prejudices against women detectives.
10 comments:
Tracy, Stout gave Dol Bonner her own novel in HAND IN GLOVE (1936). Stojut must have liked the character because she and some of her assistants would show up in the Wolfe shorter stories on rare occasions, and one of Bonner's assistants made an appearance in the Tucumseh Fox novel BAD FOR BUSINESS (1940). NBC made a television movie of HAND IN GLOVE as a vehicle for Crystal Bernard (who was starring in WINGS) in 1992, titled LADY AGAINST THE ODDS; it flopped (deservedly) and Bernard stayed with WINGS for the remaining five years of the show's life.
Stout did love to mock Wolfe and Goodwin's prejudices.
I have two friends who have read each of the Nero Wolfe mysteries more than 50 times! I've read the entire series once (too many books, too little time) and enjoyed them. As your fine review points out, Rex Stout could write wonderful short stories as well as wonderful novels.
I'm really glad you enjoyed these, Tracy. It occurs to me that Rex Stout was one of those authors who could very effectively do novels, novellas, and short stories. A lot of authors don't find it as easy to move among formats like that.
I have a Rex Stout on my CC Spin list that will post tomorrow. I'm looking forward to reading him (for the first time!) with this list.
Jerry, I am glad you reminded me of THE HAND IN THE GLOVE. I had been wondering if Stout had featured Dol Bonner in any other novels in the Wolfe series, and I totally forgot that she had a book of her own. Which I have read of course but it has been a while. I even have three copies. I should read it again soon. One of them has an introduction by Marcia Muller, which should be interesting.
Todd, since I started reading Rex Stout's Nero Wolfe series when I was very young (preteen years), I did not really notice the attitudes towards women the first couple of times I read the books. In later decades I did, but for the most part I just ignored it, especially since the other mystery fiction I was reading was often of the same vintage.
George, your two friends must be fast readers. I would guess I have read most of the Nero Wolfe's four to five times, although some of them are not my favorites and get less attention.
I really do need to shift myself and read some more Rex Stout as these two novellas sound excellent.
I agree, Margot, his short works are often as good as his novels, although I like the novels because I can spend more time with the characters.
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