Recipe for a Detective: Nero Wolfe and the Amalgamation of Mystery Styles

Take one deductive genius with outlandish eccentricities.

Combine with one hard-boiled gumshoe with an eye for a good-looking dame and a .45 in his holster.

Stir in some hardnosed, cigar-chewing NYPD policemen who think both genius and gumshoe are concealing evidence.

Fold in a Swiss chef who has no personal life. 

Pinch of Saul Panzer (if desired). 

Yield: 33 novels and 39 short stories by Rex Stout.* 

Maury Chaykin as Nero Wolfe, A&E's "A Nero Wolfe Mystery."  Still by John Medland, 2001.
Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Chaykin-Wolfe-1.jpg

This is Nero Wolfe. He is a detective. He is a genius. He is a man of simple tastes. 

He loves:  

• Good food
• Orchids
• Money
• The color yellow

He hates:

• Bad food
• Leaving his house
• Being forced to deviate from his precise schedule
• Having someone murdered in his house  (This one happens a lot.)

Timothy Hutton as Archie Goodwin, A&E's "A Nero Wolfe Mystery."  Still by John Medland, 2001
Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Hutton-TDR-2.jpg

This is his associate, Archie Goodwin. Archie is also a detective. He is a man of simple tastes.

He loves:

• Women
• Baseball
• Milk  

He hates:

• Being bored
• Being left out of the loop by his boss Nero Wolfe
• His boss Nero Wolfe’s laziness
• Having someone murdered in Nero Wolfe’s house (This happens so much that you’d think the police would just make Wolfe’s house the county morgue and save on ambulance costs.)

Together, they combine Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s Sherlockian deductions with Dashiell Hammett’s practical pavement-pounding clue collecting. Their Agatha Christie-like clients are usually foolish, pig-headed, or thinking they can pull something over on them. At first glance this combination of mystery writer styles doesn’t look like it would be feasible, much less awesome.

Yet it IS. Let me introduce you to the delight of Rex Stout’s Nero Wolfe mysteries! Yessssss!  Look upon them and be AMAZED!

Source: https://i2.wp.com/www.bookglow.net/wp-content/uploads/2016/08/featured-800-by-520-1.jpg?fit=800%2C520

I will stop this entry here so you can go and read them all before I post next. Go on. Enjoy.

P.S. Also watch the A&E series adaptation starring Timothy Hutton and Maury Chaykin.  Do. It.

*Disclaimer: I recommend the Nero Wolfe books, but I should point out to younger readers and parents that the books do include swearing—the amount varies from book to book.  Although Archie is a womanizer I have thankfully encountered little graphic sensual scenes, and although this is a murder mystery series there isn’t much graphic violence either. To conclude, I’ll grade the books PG-13 for language.