Decent enough mystery story. Not stellar, just OK all round - enjoyable, just nothing that stands out among other books. The denouement doesn't have the force it should because there are too many named characters who don't really do anything but you need to be aware of - I honestly didn't really recognise the culprit and I got a couple of place names mixed up. I'm well aware this is more my own fault than the books, but I do feel it could have been pared down.

Also I feel it's important to note the way race is handled in this book is... dodgy. I can buy that the use of the n-word by several southern sheriffs is intended as character rather than endorsing the use of it, but the way Wolfe treats the black characters in the book is at best pretty patronising although it's clearly intended to be a "non-racist" contrast. In addition, "blacking up" is a plot point. It's not down-right awful, but it's definitely not very good. ( )

Didn’t click w/me, too many non-important characters & events that seemed to be obvious misdirections, I did get it but not for the right reasons ( )

Although private detective Nero Wolfe rarely leaves his New York brownstone, his reputation as a gourmand leads to an invitation to deliver the keynote address to an intimate gathering of the world’s greatest chefs. The book opens with Wolfe and his assistant, Archie Goodwin, on a train headed for the Kanawha Spa in West Virginia. From conversations on the train and at the spa after their arrival, it’s apparent that chef Philip Laszio is universally disliked. When Laszio is murdered while supervising a tasting contest, all clues point to one suspect. However, Wolfe realizes that there is more to this case than meets the eye. Will he survive long enough to expose the real killer?

This is the kind of impossible crime that made Wolfe such a famous fictional detective. The book was written in the Jim Crow era and set in the southern U.S., and several of the spa’s African American staff are crucial witnesses. While other characters in the book use highly offensive racial slurs for the African American service workers as well as for other ethnic minority characters, Wolfe never uses this offensive language, and he treats the African American staff with respect. ( )

First, I need to give a warning to sensitive readers. This book was originally published in the 1930s, so some of the terms used for African Americans, which were normal (right or wrong) at that time, could offend some readers.

I do want to point out that though Archie goes by the common vernacular, Nero Wolfe, who is a more world-traveled and enlightened man, does not. So the two create a foil over the subject. But even Archie doesn't agree with the views or attitudes of some of the other characters on the subject.

With a giant pool of suspects, many of which disliked the murdered man to the point of considering doing it themselves, this book makes for a twisted path in trying to ascertain the killer. Add in the fact that poor Nero has traveled outside his home (something he is loath to do) to go to the event, and lack of sleep as events unfold, and Nero Wolfe and Archie will be put to the test to solve this caper. ( )

4/9/22