Daryl Devore's Blog

Daryl Devore's Blog

Thursday, 27 December 2018

The next author in my minis series of favourite authors is neither a British mystery writer or a female. #shouldbewriting


The next author is not a British mystery writer or a female – he’s American mystery writer Rex Stout the creator of Nero Wolfe.

Photo credit – Wikipedia

Rex Stout was born in 1886 and died in 1975. He wrote 30+ novels and 35+ novellas featuring detective Nero Wolfe and his hard working and totally loveable assistant Archie Goodwin.

Rex Stout began his writing career in the 1910s. He wrote more than 40 stories which spanned genres including romance, adventure, science fiction/fantasy, and detective fiction, including two serialized murder mystery novellas that prefigured elements of the Wolfe stories.

In 1929 he wrote his first published book, How Like a God, an unusual psychological story written in the second person, and published by the Vanguard Press, which he had helped to found.

In the 1930s, Stout turned to writing detective fiction. In 1933-34, he wrote Fer-de-Lance, which introduced Nero Wolfe and Archie Goodwin.


In 1959 Stout received the Mystery Writers of America's Grand Master Award. The Nero Wolfe corpus was nominated Best Mystery Series of the Century at the world's largest mystery convention, and Rex Stout was nominated Best Mystery Writer of the Century.
For absolute lovers of Nero Wolfe there is a website- The Wolfe Pack - http://www.nerowolfe.org/

Why do I love these books? I love the intellect of Nero. He rarely leaves his apartment – has a fabulous chef – everybody should have a Fritz – and yet he can solve the most baffling mysteries with only his mind. Plus – there is always Archie. Archie does the leg work and fights the fights and is about 2 steps behind Nero at figuring out what is going on.
These books are fun and the characters and plots just grab you.


If you prefer a video version – there was a series made and it is pretty good. The late Maury Chaykin played Nero and Timothy Hutton plays Archie. It’s fun to watch with the added bonus of the time period and the fabulous clothes. Oh - and the orchids!



What's happening in December on Romance -  Sweet to Heat
28 – Fridays in Space
29 – SPOTLIGHT – Victoria Adams – Christmas in a Flash
30 – Weekend Writing Warriors #8Sunday
31 – Closed for New Years

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