Nero Wolfe, for once, has left his home in New York City to visit a flower show. Along with his assistant, Archie Goodwin, he wants to inspect – and get hold of – some rare black orchids. But to the reader’s lack of surprise, his floral investigations are interrupted by a real one, when a murder takes place right in front of him. But who pulled the trigger?
And after that’s all sorted out, there’s some stuff about poisoned pen letters and a menagerie. Because this is a collection of two novellas.
Oh, that’s not a good sign, I got bored writing the blurb…
Rex Stout is an author that I’ve had limited history with. My first encounter with Wolfe, his sleuth, was in a prequel by Robert Goldsborough. I didn’t get on with that, because I had no idea who the characters were and this was full, I guess, of nods of what was to come and completely passed me by. Oh, and it wasn’t very interesting.
Then Sergio sent me a copy of Prisoner’s Base aka Out Goes She, and this was decent enough. I enjoyed it, but as I said in my review, I wasn’t going to rush out and binge on the series. And then we decided to take a look at this one for book club.
I know that I read the book. Both stories. But there was absolutely nothing that grabbed me about it. It really wasn’t a good sign when I read the first half of the first novella, put it down for an hour or so and then, when I picked it up again, I could barely remember anything about what had happened. Oh, apart from the fact that Archie Goodwin’s attitude to women was appalling.
I just found myself completely detached from the plot. The same goes for the second tale as well. Neither the plot nor the characters managed to engage my interest – I’ve got a few recommendations for the better stories and one day – maybe – I’ll come back to the series. But I think, for now, this is it for me for the series.
In Search of the Classic Mystery Novel 
Oh dear, sorry that Nero and Archie still don’t ring your doorbell. Been a long while since I’ve read this particular volume but … I am sure you are being way too hard on Archie! With Stout it’s mainly about tone, humour and the thorough and very eccentric world building. He wrote some great stories too but, admittedly, it’s not what he has ever been really remembered for.
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Humour is such a subject thing though, and I think I’m just not on the same wavelength as Stout. Never mind, there are plenty of other authors out there…
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I got bored with your review. Why bother!
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Why bother writing a negative review? Because I’m a book reviewer, it’s an author who has got a lot of fans out there and I didn’t like this book.
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I’ll just point out that you got off to a bad start with Goldsborough’s work. He was okay but not even close to Stout. So I think you haven’t tried the best Nero Wolfe books yet. With a series this large, they aren’t all winners. Also, unlike most detective series, I believe these are best read in order. Not that you need to read all of them, but the first half dozen or so really set up the parameters of Wolfe World.
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Interesting. I’ve been warned off Fer De Lance as the place to start. Do you think I need to read that one?
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Lol. you write a mystery blog and havent read Fer De Lance the first Nero Wolfe novel? incredible
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Read the first third. Lost the will to live…
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You’re probably better off giving up on Stout. I’m a big Stout/Wolfe fan and I’d say that Black Orchids and Cordially Invited to Meet Death are better than average Wolfe stories. If you didn’t like these, the odds of your liking any of the others are pretty low. To each his own.
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