::READERS REVIEWS::

Food, friends and a knife in the back... - Nero Wolfe has been invited to the gathering of some of the greatest chefs of the world. He goes for a very good reason. He wants a recipe.
What he finds is murder. Much to his unhappiness. How can he enjoy the food if the murderer is a chef? How can he enjoy chatting with the guests if one of them in the murderer? What happens if his friend, Marko Vukcic is the murderer?
A great book, wonderful setting, interesting characters and makes you hunger for more!

One more reason why Wolfe rarely leaves his home - One more reason why Wolfe rarely leaves his home
Few things can get Wolfe to leave the comfort of his home, but the promise of outstanding food is near the top of the list. Some of the greatest chefs in the world are meeting for their quinquennial dinner and Wolfe is invited to be the guest of honor to give a speech in defense of American Cuisine. Of course, the murder of one of the chefs lands Wolfe right in the middle of something he hates most of all; a reason he can't go home. As this is an early Wolfe novel, Archie still seems a bit rough around the edges, lacking the polish Stout put on him later in the series. This is manifested particularly when dealing with the African-American staff in the course of the investigation. As the novel takes place in Virginia in the 1930's, there is a racial insensitivity that makes for an interesting snapshot of the times, but it is of interest that Stout keeps Wolfe apart from the casual racism. The mystery itself will keep you interested and has a nice twist, but like many of the earlier Wolfe tales, the most intriguing aspect of the story is the gradual development of the characters that inhabit what has proved to be one of the most memorable mystery series.

Deadly Stew - Nero Wolfe and Archie Goodwin leave Manhattan for a cook-off at a resort. Wolfe is afraid of travel and regrets having made the commitment to participate in a cooking contest.
Things get deadly when members of the group of master chefs are being murdered. This is one Wolf where Archie becomes the stronger character. TOO MANY COOKS is considered by many to be one of the best in the series.
The stories and style is dated, but that doesn't spoil the fun of a clever story. Rex Stout's works have stood the test of time and so have the recipes that are given in full at the end of the book.
Nash Black, author whose mysteries are available in Kindle editions.
Qualifying LapsSins of the FathersWriting as a Small Business

Good read - This is the first Nero Wolfe book that I've read, although I have seen the dramatatizations that have been done on television. I enjoyed these, and I enjoyed this book. Wolfe is an eccentric and he is wonderfully portrayed. In this book he and his sidekick Archie are on their way to a gourmet cook convention in West Virginia. This is something in itself because Wolfe rarely leaves his home in New York City. He solves most of his crimes from there, close to his orchids and his own wonderful cook. Wolfe is a gourmet, and food drives everything he does. The mystery is intricate, and the story here is lots of fun. I do need to read more of Rex Stout's wonderful character. This is a sign of a good author, when one of his characters makes it into folklore, and becomes a household name, like Nero Wolfe is.

Stout imitates Christie... badly - Nero and Archie travel by train to a meeting of great chefs. Wolfe is something of a guest of honor and only the lure of such exquisite food could tempt him out of his brownstone. One of the chefs is universally despised by the others and it is no surprise when he is murdered. Wolfe tries to avoid involvement in the case, but of course it will be up to him to unravel the mystery.

Too Many Chefs appears to be an attempt by Rex Stout to emulate an Agatha Christie novel. He gathers a number of eccentric well-to-do people, puts them in a remote location, and gives virtually all of them a motive. The only thing missing was a little Belgian with a fancy mustache. Sadly, we learn that while Rex Stout is great at writing Nero Wolfe novels he is a very poor substitute for Dame Christie at writing Hercule Poirot novels. He introduces nearly a dozen chefs and their wives in a single paragraph, making them forever unrecognizable from that point forward. The repartee that is so sharp when Stout is at his best is so poor here that I would almost swear that someone else wrote the book.

Worst of all, the level of racism spewed out in the book is really above and beyond anything I need to see. Plenty of "n" bombs are tossed, and even Archie uses terms that are offensive. Lest African Americans feel singled out for attention, Archie also opines that women from China and "Japs" are all the same anyway. One can try to argue that the book was written in the 1930's and things were different back then. The problem is that I've read many Nero Wolfe novels, including the very first and none of them were choked with racist garbage. I'll give Stout the benefit of the doubt that he was trying to make a point, but I don't think he did it well or that it justifies the approach.

I can't recommend Too Many Cooks to either Nero Wolfe fans or newcomers to the series. There are too many other Wolfe books that are excellent such as Some Buried Caesar and Over My Dead Body to waste time on this one. It's a poor imitation of an Agatha Christie novel combined with a racism screed gone wrong. Avoid it like the plague.

Gasp! Nero Wolfe was a LIBERAL! - Detective fiction is all about style. It has to be, since there's normally not much substance. (If that statement suggests that I'm not a regular 'fan' of pulp fiction, it's accurate. I've avoided author Rex Stout for decades.) Detective fiction is formulaic and repetitive, especially when the same fictional detective crops up in as many as 73 novels, as Nero Wolfe does. Most detective fiction is airplane or beach blanket reading, escapist stuff for tired brains. And now that I've offended the millions of detective fiction fans around the world, let me say that "Too Many Cooks" is extremely witty and amusing, tightly constructed, worth reading even when your brain is in fine fettle.

I picked it up because a friend reminded me of it as an example of a "food novel." It is that. The inevitable murder victim is a world-class chef, as are all of the prime suspects. They have gathered at a posh resort in West Virginia, being members of a confraternity of great chefs that meets every five years. New York detective Nero Wolfe is the guest of honor, scheduled to deliver a keynote address on the "contributions of America to world cuisine." Wolfe is, as fans will already know, a glutton/gourmand, nearly 300 pounds, averse to travel and excess movement of any sort, reluctant to leave his New York apartment or to rise from his bed before mid-morning. The slothful sleuth is hugely arrogant, mercenary, and superhumanly astute. Most of the detecting is in fact done by Archie Goodwin, his 'Man Friday' and the narrator of the novel.

The resort setting in West Virginia, in a novel written in 1934, predictably involves Wolfe and Goodwin in issues of Jim Crow racism. All the staff, including the sous chefs who actually preapre the superb cuisine described in the tale, are African-Americans. The N-word occurs early and frequently in the narrative; so does the D-word, applied to the guest chefs of ethnicity other than Northern European. Yes yes, it was "the tenor of the times" but I confess I began to seethe. And then, glory be!, Nero Wolfe himself also began to seethe, to badger and banish the race-trashing sheriff from the investigation and to express the most enlightened dismissal of racist stereotypes. Wolfe's unexpected liberalism -- he acknowledges that he's had little experience interviewing people of color -- turns out to be critical to the success of his investigation. I'd give quite a lot to see into the minds of the readers who encountered such "political correctness' in a detective novel in 1934! And a big hurray for "political correctness" in such a format.

Fat effete Nero Wolfe was a better man by leagues than Harry Flashman. And Rex Stout was a more artful writer than George MacDonald Fraser.