So, to avoid reading the bookman books back to back, I thought I would go back and read some other classics. It has been a long time since I read Nero Wolfe, and I never read them in order. This is the first, but Stout gave it the feel of a long established series. Archie Goodwin has been with Wolfe for seven years. References are made to previous cases. The staff and routine of Wolfe's establishment are all in place: gourmet meals and orchids.
The murder weapon is a golf club - but it is certainly not used in the obvious way, and only Wolfe has all the pieces of the puzzle. Even Wolfe has to dig for them.
I'm not sure why Wolfe is so entertaining. He is more mannered and annoying than Hercule Poirot, and easily out-does Poirot at the exercise of "the little grey cells." At least Archie is not as terminally clueless as the hapless Hastings. He couldn't be, since friendship has nothing to do with relationship between Wolfe and Goodwin. And Wolfe entrusts all the legwork to him since Wolfe himself never leaves the house. Up to that point, the parallels between Poirot and Wolfe are striking. Both are physically absurd. Poirot is small and prissy with an egg-shaped head and a ridiculous mustache. Wolfe weighs upwards of 350 pounds.
Whatever it is, it seems to work for both.
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