First off, let's have Wikipedia describe who this Nero Wolfe character is: "Nero Wolfe is a fictional character, a brilliant, oversized, eccentric armchair detective created in 1934 by American mystery writer Rex Stout. He lives in a luxurious brownstone on West 35th Street in New York City, and he is loath to leave his home for business or anything that would keep him from reading his books, tending his orchids, or eating the gourmet meals prepared by his chef. Archie Goodwin, Wolfe's sharp-witted, dapper young confidential assistant with an eye for women, narrates the cases and does the legwork for the detective." Now, there are 33 Wolfe novels about, TV series galore, and novellas to boot. When I was a small boy, some 30 years ago, I would see them published in the venerable Saturday Evening Post. And yet, this classic detective character's story did NOT resonate with me. When Wolfe, for once not inside his Manhattan brownstone, but at a gourmet convention, is called upon to solve the murder of a chef, trouble ensues, not in the story per se, but in the amount of its characters. Thoroughly confused after 42 pages, I went back over the few chapters I read, only to discover that I had been introduced to 40 people! Too much! Too many. I could not keep them straight! And there were a few 'suspect racial references herein as well; I suppose in 1938 the term 'picaninnie' was in vogue, but I had to wince nonetheless! But the biggest mystery was why Lena Horne, a divine chanteuse, wrote an introduction to this omnibus edition. But no 'spoilers' here! ( )

Rex Stout's style reminds me of Raymond Chandler in the language and vocabulary. Of course, Chandler and Stout have created two different types of detectives, and I enjoy each writer's creation. Chandler writes of California, while Stout's Nero Wolfe operates from New York. I enjoyed learning about haute cuisine and Archie Goodwin's every man approach to the festivities. Archie Goodwin relates the proceedings in a manner of the journal of Doctor Watson explaining the cases of Sherlock Holmes. The comparison between Holmes and Wolfe jumps to mind, as both men are extremely intelligent and observant. Sir Conan Doyle invents a better story. ( )

Too Many Cooks is the first tale in another of the 2-novels-in-one publications of Rex Stout's Nero Wolfe series being republished by Bantam these days; this one hails from 1938 and features that rarity, Nero Wolfe leaving his New York City home and venturing out into the world! However, he has good reason to do so, for he is the guest of honour at a gathering of Les Quinze Maitres, the fifteen best chefs in the world. Only ten are at this event, which is only held once every five years, because three of the chefs have died and two more were not able to make the trip to West Virginia. It's only a matter of time before one of these men, the most obnoxious person imaginable of whom at least three fellow Masters have expressed an intent to kill, is indeed murdered, and it's up to Nero Wolfe to solve the crime in time to make his midnight train back home after the final event, a gourmet dinner followed by his, Wolfe's, keynote speech to the gathered chefs....A couple of difficult bits for the modern reader in this one, in that one (quite unpleasant) character uses the n-word a few times, there's some stereotyping of a Chinese-American woman (from San Francisco, natch), and even Archie uses the terms "dago" and "smokes" (which was a new term to me) on a couple of occasions. But other than those distasteful (to the modern ear, not to the original audience) language lapses, this is as richly charactered and fairly clued as any of Stout's books in this series. If you like Nero Wolfe, this is well worth a taste!

Lately, I've been reading Rex Stout's Nero Wolfe books that are being republished in two-books-in-one form; Champagne for One (1958) is paired with previously reviewed Too Many Cooks (1938), but the 20-year gap between the two novels doesn't make any difference at all in terms of the ages and behaviours of the characters, etc., except, perhaps for the subject matter (unwed mothers) and some slightly stronger language. Archie is asked by his acquaintance Austin "Dinky" Byne to fill in for Byne at a dinner party being held by his wealthy aunt, who honours her deceased first husband's memory by continuing to support the country home where unwed mothers are sent to have their babies that her husband patronized; she also holds an annual dinner party on her late husband's birthday, to which four young women from that group home (who have already given birth) are invited, along with four young society men. Archie is intrigued, all the more so when he is told that one of the young women has kept a bottle of cyanide in her purse for over a year, declaring every now and then that she does so because she might decide to kill herself at any moment. When that same young woman accepts a glass of champagne, sips it and within eight minutes dies of cyanide poisoning, only Archie believes that this was a murder, not a suicide. His belief is enough for Wolfe to plunge into the case, to determine whether his sidekick is seeing things correctly, or just seeing things... I found this to be one of the better entries in the series; I like all the Nero Wolfe books that I've read, but this one seems especially strong to me. Recommended. ( )