4/9/22

3.5*

This 16th book in the Nero Wolfe series is another which is a collection of 3 novellas.
Contains:
Man Alive
Omit Flowers
Door to Death

Stout must have liked this format - I hadn't realized how many of the books were actually collections rather than single plots. The 3rd story, "Door to Death", seemed very familiar & I finally realized that I had seen it on the TV show. It stuck with me in part because Wolfe leaves his brownstone to go to Westchester county trying to "poach" a gardener skilled with orchids (Theodore has been called to a sick relative out of town).

In the 2nd story, "Omit Flowers", Wolfe's friend restaurateur Marko Vukcic asks him to take up a case. The accused is a chef he knows (Victor Pampas). This one had a particularly good denouement scene with Inspector Kramer present but under promise to not say anything :) ( )

THREE DOORS TO DEATH (Nero Wolfe #16) by Rex Stout is three short stories written in the late 1940s that are still fun to read today. Archie Goodwin talks us through three tales of murder and Nero Wolfe talks us through the solutions.
We open with MAN ALIVE, set in the New York world of high fashion. A dead man appears to come back to life, only to be murdered.
OMIT FLOWERS takes on the restaurant business. After her husband dies, the new owner and head of a highly successful chain of fine dining establishments decides to marry a slightly shady character and install him as president of the company. Her children, not to mention her head chef, have other ideas.
Finally DOOR TO DEATH presents a clear cut case of murder that could only have be perpetrated by one man. Wolfe has allowed Archie to drive him to the wilds of Westchester in search of a new horticulturist to temporarily replace Wolfe's usual man. That Wolfe has left his home shows how important the new man is to him, so Wolfe knows there is no possible way the fellow could be guilty.
Each is a puzzler and it is nice to sit and actually read a good mystery in the company of old friends. This is yet another winner from the pen of the late Mr. Stout. ( )

See review of other copy. Bought this copy because the cover of my other copy is damaged. ( )

This is three novelettes. The first,"Man Alive" involves a theme Stout uses several times (e.g. Red Threads) of a woman involved in the fashion industry (in which his wife worked). In this case, the niece of a leading designer comes to Wolfe to say her uncle supposedly committed suicide by jumping into a geyser in Yellowstone Park. but she has recently seen him alive. Soon after the investigation begins, however, he is found definitely dead. I rally like the opening concept of that one, though the rest is a fairly conventional investigation. . The second story, "Omit Flowers" has Wolfe's best friend Marko Vukcic asking as a favor that he look into a crime for which a once-great chef is being accused. The chief (Virgil Pompa) now works for a chain of restaurants called Ambrosia (reminiscent of the Pratterias in Some Buried Caesar) . Pompa had been the number 2 man in the business behind its founder, and when he died Pompa took over running it until the founder's widow remarried and decided her second husband should take over. When the husband was found with a knife in his back, Pompa was of course a suspect. The third story, "Door to Death" involves Wolfe and Archie going out to Westchester County to recruit an orchid tender to temporarily replace Wolfe's usual an Horstman who is ill. They find the prospective orchid men accused of murder in the death of a woman, so of course Wolfe has to get him off. ( )