::READERS REVIEWS::

A great, fat gourmand of a detective - "...Wolfe sipped the last drop of his luncheon coffee, put down his cup, and made two distinct and separate oral noises. The first was meant to express his pleasure and satisfaction in the immediate past, the hour spent at table; the second was a grunt of resigned dismay at the prospect of the immediate future, which was embodied in the bulky figure of Inspector Cramer..."

Well, they just don't write like that anymore. If you're like me, you'll read with Webster's on hand as Wolfe and his assistant Goodwin carry on their 'persiflage' amidst the current investigation. Wolfe calls for his beer, his leftover roast duck, his orchid files, and all of his witnesses because he doesn't take walk-ins, he won't suffer fools, and he never leaves his house.

This was my first pass at the Rex Stout mystery library, and I'm definitely signing on for more!

Not impressive!! - It is all about wise-cracking by Wolfe's protege/assistant Archie Goodwin. I am not at all impressed, may be it shouldn't be the first book to start with but... I wouldn't buy another book by this author in the near future!!! Trash....

Daddy's Girl - One morning in 1939 a young woman appeared at the brownstone, seeking Nero Wolfe. Archie Goodwin was hopeful that the meeting would lead to a case but he never expected the surprises that would soon follow for shortly after Wolfe entered the office the young woman proclaimed herself to be Wolfe's long lost daughter. As if that statement was not shocking enough Archie was further stunned when Wolfe acknowledged that she could very well be his missing child. After these stunning revelations the dead bodies, semi clad women, horde of NYPD detectives and persistent FBI agents are almost anti climatic.

Fans of the Nero Wolfe series will not want to miss this introduction to Wolfe's daughter (she also figures in THE BLACK MOUNTAIN) and learn a bit more about Wolfe's mysterious past. Those who are new to the series could begin with this one, even though it is the seventh in the series. Archie is at his devious best in this one as he manages to stay one step ahead of both the police and the FBI in this one.

Serious Wolfe fans might be able to catch Wolfe in a lie to the FBI if they read carefully....happy hunting!

Confound it, another great Wolfe novel - Over My Dead Body is the seventh in the Nero Wolfe series. A young lady claiming to be Wolfe's adopted daughter from Yugoslavia asks for his help with a charge of stealing diamonds but this quickly evolves into a situation where she is suspected of murder. The case frustrates Wolfe no end, it gets more complicated all the while, but of course he manages to uncover the solution by the end of the story.

This book is a prime example of a Nero Wolfe novel. Archie Goodwin is in top form as a wise cracking pain-in-the-neck. Inspector Cramer is present more than a lot of stories giving Goodwin plenty of opportunities for zingers besides the ones he routinely fires at Wolfe. Wolfe himself is definitely out of his comfort zone dealing with the situation of his adopted daughter and this also adds to the potential for laughs.

This is a very entertaining book and I would recommend it for readers unfamiliar with Nero Wolfe as a great place to start or for established fans.

First rate Nero Wolfe - This book hits on all cylinders. The plot is excellent, intricate but clear. The characters are well drawn. The atmosphere, New York on the eve of World War II, is almost palpable. The dialogue is perfect. I'm at a loss as to what else to say about the book except, "Read it."

A Britsh undercover agent is murdered at a Manhattan fencing school, skewered by an epee with a gizmo attached that turns it into a weapon sans blunt end. Yugoslav women who are instructors there are possible suspects, one of whom is Nero Wolfe's adopted daughter from his days as an ill advised Austrian agent in the Balkans, pre World War, before we started numbering them. This alone is a startling revelation about Wolfe. Wolfe slender? Youthful? Abroad, outside, involved with people? I was astonished.

As usual, the beer drinking, orchid collecting, erudite, corpulent food lover Nero Wolfe declines, under any circumstances, to leave his brownstone abode with a greenhouse rooftop for his rare flowers. Using Archie, his assistant, as legs, Wolfe solves the baffling case. I knew he would. He's solved all the other mysteries in the Nero Wolfe books I've read.

Mystery fans who have not read mysteries from the golden age (pre-1950) do not know what they are missing. There is no sex to lure the lascivious reader, very little violence, no profanity. What there is (and this book is an excellent example of the sub-genre) is intelligence.
That's a rare commodity in most modern mysteries.

Classic Mystery! - Formatted nicely for the Kindle, this is one of the classic Nero Wolfe stories, written when Rex Stout was in his prime. A girl comes to his office seeking help for her friend accused of stealing some diamonds from a clients coat at the fencing studio where the girls work. But what starts as a simple case of forgotten diamonds ends in international intrigue and the appearance of Wolfe's daughter.

Please, more Nero Wolfe for the Kindle!