The joys of Nero Wolfe…

I’ve been on a bit of a classic crime bender of late, and have become throughly addicted to Rex Stout’s novels featuring Nero Wolfe and his assistant Archie Goodwin.
For years I’ve seen Wolfe mentioned by crime writers and readers alike as a source of joy and/or inspiration, and so was very curious to actually read some of the books myself.

Dipped my toes into the water with Murder by the Book, a classic hardback pulp-fiction-jacketed find in a second-hand bookstore, and have since devoured four more…and am jonesing for the next one I can find. Jonesing being accurate as these things are like paper-based crack.

The stories are smart, Nero and Archie (and Inspector Cramer, Purley Stebbins and all the rest of the supporting cast) are compellingly drawn, complex and utterly believable characters. The dialogue is razor-sharp and noir-ish, and often laugh out loud (and quote at people) funny. For books originally written from the thirties through to the late fifties (at least the ones I’ve read), they are still fresh today. Of course, there are eyebrow raising moments when considering certain attitudes of the time etc. but on the whole they feel far more modern (or less stuffy?) than Agatha Christie or her ilk. It’s a real shame that the books seem mostly to be out of print these days, but I’ll happily keep sourcing them both second-hand locally and online.

So far I’ve read: Murder by the Book, Red Threads (which has Inspector Cramer as the lead), The League of Frightened Men, Before Midnight and Under the Andes (which was written before the first Nero Wolfe book), which means I have around 50 (!) more books to try to get hold of. That should keep me busy!

If you, like me, frequent second-hand bookstores, and come across a Rex Stout book while roaming the stacks, do yourself a favour and buy it.

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