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Rex Stout (1886-1975)

Creator of Detective
Nero Wolfe

Rex Stout

Rex Stout was an American writer best known as the creator of the fictional detective, Nero Wolfe. He introduced Nero Wolfe and his assistant Archie Goodwin in his first detective novel, Fer-de-Lance, published in 1934. This first Nero Wolfe mystery involves the death of a college president while playing golf in Westchester County, New York. Click Here

Nero Wolfe was a gourmet, connoisseur and orchid grower, who, with the help of his assistant, Archie Goodwin, could solve crimes without leaving his Manhattan brownstone. Stout continued writing at least one Wolfe adventure per year until his death in 1975.

Stout was one of many American writers closely watched by J. Edgar Hoover, Director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation.  Hoover considered Stout an enemy of the FBI and a Communist, someone whose novels and mail HAD to be watched.

In 1965 the FBI panicked and attempted to retaliate against him when his novel The Doorbell Rang was published. In this novel Nero Wolfe is hired to force the FBI to stop wiretapping, tailing and otherwise harassing a woman who had given away 10,000 copies of a book that was critical of the Bureau and its Director. Click Here

More Nero Wolfe novels (for more information click on blue link):

• The League of Frightened Men (1935)- Author Paul Chapin is on trial for obscenity in his popular novel. Wolfe reads the book, then tells Archie that a potential client had asked Wolfe to arrange to protect him from Chapin. The potential client, along with some classmates at Harvard, had taken part in a hazing incident years before, in which Chapin was crippled. Now some of the "League of Frightened Men" — who chipped in to help Chapin after the accident — have begun dying. It is unclear whether that is through malice or by chance, but the surviving members of the League wish to hire Wolfe to find out.

• The Rubber Band (1936)- Archie books two new clients on the same day, and before the day is over Wolfe has to choose which to keep and there are more than two crimes to untangle. The client he keeps in the end is a beautiful young woman, but it's Wolfe who reads her Hungarian poetry, not Archie. In the course of this novel, Lieutenant Rowcliff, not one of the NYPD's finest (in the opinion not only of Wolfe but Cramer), earns Wolfe's enmity that lasts until the final Wolfe novel in 1975.
• The Red Box (1937)- In the midst of a murder investigation, one of the suspects visits Wolfe and begs Wolfe to handle his estate and especially the contents of a certain red box. Wolfe is at first concerned about a possible conflict of interest, but feels unable to refuse when the man then dies in his office before telling Wolfe where to find the red box. The police naturally think that he told Wolfe somewhat more before dying.
• Too Many Cooks (1938) Wolfe, a knowledgeable gourmet as well as a detective, attends a meeting of great chefs, The Fifteen Masters, at a resort in West Virginia, and jealousies among them soon lead to death. Wolfe sustains his own injury in the course of finding the culprit but also obtains the secret recipe for saucisse minuit (a sausage for a fat detective consisting of spices, wine, brandy, bacon, pork, goose and pheasant).
• Some Buried Caesar (1939) On the way to an agricultural fair north of Manhattan, Wolfe's car runs into a tree, stranding Wolfe and Archie at the home of the owner of a chain of fast-food cafés. A neighbor is later found gored to death; the authorities rule the death an accident but Wolfe deduces that it was murder. Lily Rowan, a Manhattan socialite and heiress who is Archie's main romantic interest throughout the corpus, makes her first appearance.
• Over My Dead Body (1940) When a Montenegrin female comes to the brownstone to ask for help, a minor rumpus about stolen diamonds at a fashionable fencing academy quickly develops into international intrigue and murder. Nero Wolfe's long buried and jealously guarded past comes to light.
• Where There's a Will (1940) Wolfe is initially retained to assist in a will contest, only soon to find himself engaged in investigating a murder.
• Black Orchids (1942) Short story collection that includes "Black Orchids" and "Cordially Invited to Meet Death"
• Not Quite Dead Enough (1944) Short story collection that includes "Not Quite Dead Enough" and "Booby Trap"
• The Silent Speaker (1946) The head of a Federal agency is bludgeoned to death just before giving a speech to an industrial association. Public opinion quickly turns against the association, which is thought to have been involved in the murder. The association hires Wolfe to find the murderer in hope of ending the public relations disaster.
• Too Many Women (1947) A malcontent at the Naylor-Kerr Corporation charges that one of its employees, thought to have been killed in a hit-and-run accident, was actually murdered. The president of the colossal company hires Archie to look into the matter in the guise of a personnel consultant working in Naylor-Kerr's executive offices — where 500 beautiful woman have been gathered under one roof.
• And Be a Villain (1948) (British title More Deaths Than One) A radio show guest is poisoned on the air during a plug for the show's sponsor, a soft-drink manufacturer. The negative publicity, and the low bank balance at tax time, brings Nero Wolfe into the case — and into his first recorded encounter with a shadowy master criminal. The first of three novels (The Second Confession, In the Best Families) that concern Nero Wolfe's struggle with Arnold Zeck, an organized crime kingpin.
• Trouble in Triplicate (1949) Short story collection that includes "Help Wanted, Male," "Before I Die" and "Instead of Evidence"
• The Second Confession (1949) Hired to find evidence that Louis Rony is a Communist, Wolfe finds himself under attack from Arnold Zeck and stymied by his own client. Wolfe solves Rony's murder by coercing the assistance of the American Communist Party.
• Three Doors to Death (1950) Short story collection that includes "Man Alive," "Omit Flowers" and "Door to Death"
• In the Best Families (1950) A wealthy wife hires Wolfe to learn the source of her husband's mysterious income. In short order, Arnold Zeck horns in, the wife is murdered, and Wolfe disappears.
• Curtains for Three (1951) Short story collection that includes "The Gun with Wings," "Bullet for One" and "Disguise for Murder"
• Murder by the Book (1951) Because the New York police have written the case off as an accident, a Peoria businessman asks Wolfe to investigate the hit-and-run death of his daughter, a reader for a book publishing company, in Van Cortlandt Park. Wolfe connects her death to a list of names he was recently shown by Inspector Cramer, related to a stalled homicide investigation — and concludes there is a second murder. A third murder validates Wolfe's conclusion, and Archie follows the trail of an unpublished novel to California and back.
• Triple Jeopardy (1952) Short story collection that includes "Home to Roost," "The Cop-Killer" and "The Squirt and the Monkey"
• Prisoner's Base (1952) (British title Out Goes She) A young woman who will shortly inherit control of a large manufacturing firm wants to rent a room in Wolfe's house. Wolfe, outraged, puts her out; she is found murdered later that night. With no client in sight, Wolfe is not interested, but Archie feels responsible. His first step is to crash a meeting of the manufacturer's board of directors.
• The Golden Spiders (1953) A squeegie kid, Pete Drossos, tells his neighbor and hero, Nero Wolfe, how he saw a woman being held at gunpoint at a nearby intersection. It isn't long before Pete is murdered and Wolfe investigates his death for a fee of $4.30 that Pete had managed to save from washing windshields.
• Three Men Out (1954) Short story collection that includes "Invitation to Murder," "The Zero Clue" and "This Won't Kill You"
• The Black Mountain (1954) Wolfe and Archie secretly go to Yugoslavia in order to avenge the death of Wolfe's oldest friend and bring the murderer to justice.
• Before Midnight (1955) A national literary contest to promote a new brand of perfume leads to murder and more.
• Three Witnesses (1956) Short story collection that includes "The Next Witness," "When a Man Murders" and "Die Like a Dog"
• Might As Well Be Dead (1956) Wolfe is hired to find a missing person, who soon turns up — under a new name — as a newly convicted murderer in a sensational crime.
• Three for the Chair (1957) Short story collection that includes "A Window for Death," "Immune to Murder" and "Too Many Detectives"
• If Death Ever Slept (1957) Millionaire Otis Jarrell retains Nero Wolfe to get a snake out of his house — the snake being his daughter-in-law, whom he believes is ruining his business deals by leaking information to his competitors. Since Archie and Wolfe are in the midst of one of their periodic squabbles, it is decided that Archie will move into Jarrell's Fifth Avenue penthouse apartment, posing as his new secretary, While he's away, Orrie tests out Archie's desk.
• And Four to Go (1958) Short story collection that includes "Christmas Party," "Easter Parade" "Fourth of July Picnic" and "Murder Is No Joke"
• Champagne for One (1958) Archie sits in for a friend at a charity dinner dance for unwed mothers, and one of the guests drops dead on the dance floor.
• Plot It Yourself (1959) (British title Murder in Style) A group of authors and publishers hires Wolfe to investigate a series of plagiarism claims. Wolfe, by his own admission, bungles the investigation so badly that three murders result.
• Three at Wolfe's Door (1960) Short story collection that includes "Poison a la Carte," "Method Three for Murder" and "The Rodeo Murder"
• Too Many Clients (1960) A man who identifies himself as Thomas Yeager, head of Continental Plastics, asks Archie to ascertain whether he is being followed when he visits a certain address in one of New York's worst neighborhoods. When Yeager's body is found at an excavation site in the vicinity of that address, Archie crosses the threshold and finds a fantastically appointed love nest where Yeager secretly entertained many women.
• The Final Deduction (1961) Wolfe is initially retained to work on a kidnapping, but deaths soon crop up.
• Homicide Trinity (1962) Short story collection that includes "Eeny Meeny Murder Mo," "Death of a Demon" and "Counterfeit for Murder"
• Gambit (1962) A chess prodigy is poisoned during a club tournament, and the police arrest the member who served the victim hot chocolate. Wolfe is hired to exonerate the suspect, but finds that no one else has either an adequate motive or the requisite opportunity.
• The Mother Hunt (1963) A baby is left in a young widow's vestibule, along with a note implying that her late husband is the baby's father. The widow hires Wolfe to identify and locate the baby's birth mother.
• Trio for Blunt Instruments (1964) Short story collection that includes "Kill Now — Pay Later," "Murder Is Corny" and "Blood Will Tell"
• A Right to Die (1964) A character who last appeared a quarter-century earlier asks Wolfe to help his son, a young black man whose fiancée is white and wealthy. When the girl is murdered and the son arrested, Wolfe's investigation leads to a 1959 suicide in Wisconsin.
• Death of a Doxy (1966) Orrie Cather, one of Wolfe's operatives, has been secretly seeing a wealthy man's kept mistress at her secret lovenest, but is arrested when she turns up dead.
• The Father Hunt (1968) Amy Denovo, a young woman assisting Lily Rowan, hires Nero Wolfe because she must find out who her father is, or was. After her mother was killed in a recent hit-and-run, Amy received a locked metal box containing more than a quarter of a million dollars in cash — and a letter from her mother that explained only that the money came from her father. The mystery of Amy's mother's identity rivals that of her father's.
• Death of a Dude (1969) Archie Goodwin is part of a house party at Lily Rowan's vacation home in Montana when a murder brings Nero Wolfe from New York to give a hand.
• Please Pass the Guilt (1973) A powerful bomb planted in the desk of one TV executive has killed another. To identify the killer, it is first necessary to figure out whether the victim was the intended victim.
• A Family Affair (1975) - Rex Stout's final Nero Wolfe novel - When a bomb kills his favorite waiter from his favorite restaurant, sedentary sleuth and gourmand Nero Wolfe is determined to go to any length to find the killer.
• Death Times Three(1985) Short story collection published after Stout's death that includes "Bitter End," "Frame-Up for Murder" and "Assault on a Brownstone"

For more information on Rex Stout Click Here.

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