Nero Wolfe

Nero Wolfe is a fictional detective created by the prolific American author Rex Stout in the 1930s and featured in dozens of books and short stories (many of which were later collected into books). Wolfe, probably the best-known consulting detective after Sherlock Holmes, was born in 1892 or 1893 in Montenegro and fought in World War I against the Germans. He weighs about 285 pounds and is 5'11" tall. He raises orchids as a hobby in a rooftop greenhouse in his New York City brownstone rowhouse on West 35th Street with the help of his employee Theodore Horstmann, drinks copious amounts of beer throughout the day and is a gourmand (and so employs a live-in cook, Fritz Brenner), and almost never leaves his house (where his office is). His leg-work is done by another live-in employee, Archie Goodwin, who is also a licensed detective.

Bibliography

Nero Wolfe books by Rex Stout

• Fer-de-Lance (1934) — 1st Nero Wolfe mystery & 1936 movie: Meet Nero Wolfe
• The League of Frightened Men (1935) — 1937 movie: The League of Frightened Men
• Rubber Band (1936)
• Red Box (1937)
• Too Many Cooks (1938)
• Some Buried Caesar (1939)
• Over My Dead Body (1940)
• Where There's a Will (1940)
• Black Orchids (1942)
• Not Quite Dead Enough (1944)
• The Silent Speaker (1946)
• Too Many Women (1947)
• And Be a Villain (1948) (British: More Deaths than One)
• The Second Confession (1949)
• Trouble in Triplicate (1949)
• Curtains for Three (1950)
• In the Best Families (1950) (British: Even in the Best Families)
• Three Doors to Death (1950)
• Murder by the Book (1951)
• Prisoner's Base (1952) (British: Out Goes She)
• Triple Jeopardy (1952)
• The Golden Spiders (1953)
• The Black Mountain (1954)
• Three Men Out (1954)
• Before Midnight (1955)
• Might As Well Be Dead (1956)
• Three Witnesses (1956)
• If Death Ever Slept (1957)
• Three for the Chair (1957)
• And Four to Go (1958)
• Champagne for One (1958)
• Plot It Yourself (1959) (British: Murder in Style)
• Three at Wolfe's Door (1960)
• Too Many Clients (1960)
• The Final Deduction (1961)
• Gambit (1962)
• Homicide Trinity (1962)
• The Mother Hunt (1963)
• A Right to Die (1964)
• Trio for Blunt Instruments (1964)
• The Doorbell Rang (1965) — 1977 movie (pilot for tv series): Nero Wolfe
• Death of a Doxy (1966)
• The Father Hunt (1968)
• Death of a Dude (1969)
• Please Pass the Guilt (1973)
• Three Trumps (1973)
• A Family Affair (1975) — last Nero Wolfe novel by Rex Stout
• Death Times Three (1985)

Nero Wolfe short stories by Rex Stout

• "Bitter End" (1940)
• "Black Orchids" (1941)
• "Cordially Invited to Meet Death" (1942)
• "Not Quite Dead Enough" (1942)
• "Booby Trap" (1944)
• "Help Wanted, Male" (1945)
• "Instead of Evidence" (1946)
• "Before I Die" (1947)
• "Man Alive" (1947)
• "Bullet for One" (1948)
• "Omit Flowers" (1948)
• "Gun with Wings" (1949)
• "Disguise for Murder" (1950)
• "Door to Death" (1950)
• "Cop-Killer" (1951)
• "Home to Roost" (1951)
• "Invitation to Murder" (1952)
• "Squirt and the Monkey" (1952)
• "Zero Clue" (1952)
• "This Won't Kill You" (1953)
• "Next Witness" (1954)
• "When a Man Murders" (1954)
• "Die like a Dog" (1955)
• "Immune to Murder" (1955)
• "Window for Death" (1955)
• "Christmas Party" (1956)
• "Easter Parade" (1956)
• "Too Many Detectives" (1956)
• "Fourth of July Picnic" (1957)
• "Murder Is No Joke" (1957)
• "Frame-Up for Murder" (1958)
• "Method Three for Murder" (1960)
• "Poison a la Carte" (1960)
• "Rodeo Murder" (1960)
• "Assault on a Brownstone" (1961) — earlier version of "Counterfeit for Murder" (not actually published until 1985)
• "Counterfeit for Murder" (1961)
• "Death of a Demon" (1961)
• "Eeny Meeny Murder Mo" (1961)
• "Kill Now—Pay Later" (1961)
• "Blood Will Tell" (1963)
• "Murder Is Corny" (1963)

Nero Wolfe books by Robert Goldsborough

• Murder in E-Minor (1986) — 1st Nero Wolfe novel by Robert Goldsborough
• Death on Deadline (1987)
• The Bloodied Ivy (1988)
• The Last Coincidence (1989)
• Fade to Black (1990)
• Silver Spire (1992)
• The Missing Chapter (1994)

Books about Nero Wolfe

• Nero Wolfe of West Thirty-fifth Street (1969) (biography by William S. Baring-Gould)
• The Nero Wolfe Cookbook (1973) (by Rex Stout) (ISBN 1-888952-24-5)
• The Brownstone House of Nero Wolfe, as Told by Archie Goodwin (1983) (full-length book by Ken Darby about Wolfe's house, including several very elaborate floor plans) (ISBN 0-316-17280-4)
• At Wolfe's Door: The Nero Wolfe Novels of Rex Stout (1991; revised 2003) (bibliography, reviews, and essays, by J. Kenneth Van Dover) (Hardbound: ISBN 0-918736-51-X Paperback: ISBN 0-918736-52-8)