# Nero Wolfe and more



## Gertie Kindle (Nov 6, 2008)

I have been keeping an eye out for any Nero Wolfe books by Rex Stout in Kindle format. I found one of his Tecumseh Fox novels and wrote to the publisher to see what might be coming next. Here is his reply.

*Thanks so much for you interest in the Rex Stout books we're publishing. I can let you know that hot of the press (there's got to be a better metaphor for an ebook) is the Nero Wolfe novel, Over My Dead Body. It's available at Amazon right now (they're still building the page so there's no description up yet) at:

http://www.amazon.com/Over-My-Dead-Body-ebook/dp/B003CIOQ84/

And next Monday Fictionwise will have it available for purchase. We don't have the rights to any other Nero Wolfe at this time, but we are planning on publishing the Rex Stout novel Red Threads in the next six weeks.
*

www.wonderpublishinggroup.com

It's an interesting website.

I'm off to get the new Wolfe. Too bad they don't have the rights to all of them.


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## Betsy the Quilter (Oct 27, 2008)

Thanks for posting this, Gertie!  Yay!  As soon as I get another swagbucks GC, I'm getting it!

Betsy


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## Mike D. aka jmiked (Oct 28, 2008)

Just went and got it. I'd re-purchase all the Wolfe books in a heartbeat. Thanks for keeping tabs on them.

Mike


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## sheltiemom (Dec 28, 2008)

Just got it.  Thanks for letting us know.


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## crebel (Jan 15, 2009)

There are now half a dozen Nero Wolfe books up at Amazon as pre-orders to be delivered day after tomorrow (April 2. Besides Over My Dead Body (kindle), there are: The League of Frightened Men (kindle), Triple Jeopardy (kindle), Red Threads (kindle), Death Times Three (kindle), The Final Deduction (kindle), and Might As Well Be Dead (kindle).

Unfortunately, they are all from Bantam Publishers and are listed at $9.99 for each. I want to duplicate my entire Nero Wolfe collection in Kindle, but will wait to see if the price comes down. At least they are releasing them for Kindle!


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## Mike D. aka jmiked (Oct 28, 2008)

Not only are they $9.99, but it looks like they may be Topaz formatted (they give file size _and_ print length info).

Oh, well.

(BTW, Red Threads is not a Nero Wolfe book, it's got Inspector Cramer, but not Wolfe or Archie)

Mike


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## Gertie Kindle (Nov 6, 2008)

crebel said:


> There are now half a dozen Nero Wolfe books up at Amazon as pre-orders to be delivered day after tomorrow (April 2. Besides Over My Dead Body (kindle), there are: The League of Frightened Men (kindle), Triple Jeopardy (kindle), Red Threads (kindle), Death Times Three (kindle), The Final Deduction (kindle), and Might As Well Be Dead (kindle).
> 
> Unfortunately, they are all from Bantam Publishers and are listed at $9.99 for each. I want to duplicate my entire Nero Wolfe collection in Kindle, but will wait to see if the price comes down. At least they are releasing them for Kindle!


Good news bad news. We've got them, but we'll have to pay premium price.

Bantam is part of Random House, so they may go down.



jmiked said:


> Not only are they $9.99, but it looks like they may be Topaz formatted (they give file size _and_ print length info).
> 
> Oh, well.
> 
> ...


That doesn't necessarily mean they are Topaz. I've seen other authors showing both and they're not Topaz. Sample first.

I'll wait until the price goes down or only buy one a month.


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## L.J. Sellers novelist (Feb 28, 2010)

Rex Stout's series about Nero Wolf and Archie Goodwin introduced me to crime fiction when I was in high school. It took me to a whole new world too (New York, brownstones, private investigators). I loved it and read everything in the series, but I haven't been back to it. Except to read Some Buried Caesar for Bouchercon last year.
L.J.


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## Gertie Kindle (Nov 6, 2008)

L.J. Sellers said:


> Rex Stout's series about Nero Wolf and Archie Goodwin introduced me to crime fiction when I was in high school. It took me to a whole new world too (New York, brownstones, private investigators). I loved it and read everything in the series, but I haven't been back to it. Except to read Some Buried Caesar for Bouchercon last year.
> L.J.


Ahh, the origin of Escamillo. It's one of the few paper books I still read.

Just thought of something. I had been buying the Agatha Christie e-books and they were reasonably priced at $4.99. I stopped buying them a while ago. Hope they haven't gone up.


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## Mike D. aka jmiked (Oct 28, 2008)

Gertie Kindle 'a/k/a Margaret Lake' said:


> That doesn't necessarily mean they are Topaz. I've seen other authors showing both and they're not Topaz.


True enough. That's why I went back after I posted it and added the "may" part. 



Gertie Kindle 'a/k/a Margaret Lake' said:


> Sample first.


Always. I've already dropped plans to get Timothy Zahn's _Night Train to Rigel_ because it was Topaz. Curiously enough, the later books in the series aren't.

Mike


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## Mike D. aka jmiked (Oct 28, 2008)

Some of the Wolfe books seem to have been released. If the $9.99 price seems high, look at the price of the paperbacks: Amazon is selling those for $13.50, i.e., trade instead of mass-market.


Mike


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## Gertie Kindle (Nov 6, 2008)

jmiked said:


> Some of the Wolfe books seem to have been released. If the $9.99 price seems high, look at the price of the paperbacks: Amazon is selling those for $13.50, i.e., trade instead of mass-market.
> 
> Mike


Yes, but they are also selling two full novels in one paperback

Too Many Cooks/Champagne for One (Nero Wolfe Mysteries) by Rex Stout (Paperback - Apr. 28, 2009)
Buy new: $10.20

It's just too expensive for me to get them all. I'm going to start with _The Final Deduction_. The three-in-one novellas are not high on my list.

There's one where the murder victim lives in a red and yellow apartment (Wolfe's fave colors, as you know). I can never think of the name of it and I don't have that one.


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## blackbelt (May 4, 2010)

Nero Wolfe is one of the great detectives ever.  I love how he has a perfect foil in Archie.  That they're coming to Kindle is music to my ears.

The A&E series with Timothy Hutton was also one of the best visions of a book-to-film transition ever.

- Michaelbrent Collings


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## Gertie Kindle (Nov 6, 2008)

blackbelt said:


> Nero Wolfe is one of the great detectives ever. I love how he has a perfect foil in Archie. That they're coming to Kindle is music to my ears.
> 
> The A&E series with Timothy Hutton was also one of the best visions of a book-to-film transition ever.
> 
> - Michaelbrent Collings


Agreed. My poor paperbacks are becoming unreadable. So glad they are coming out for Kindle, now.

More will be available next week and I pre-ordered two. _The Golden Spiders_ and _The Father Hunt_. I never had TGS and my copy of TFH is ready for the garbage heap.

Looks like someone else besides Bantam is publishing the e-books. A lot of the new ones are $5.59-$6.39.


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## blackbelt (May 4, 2010)

The Golden Spiders is one of my faves; enjoy!


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## Gertie Kindle (Nov 6, 2008)

blackbelt said:


> The Golden Spiders is one of my faves; enjoy!


One thing in that one does upset me.

Right now I'm happily wallowing in _Might As Well Be Dead_.

My latest two purchases should arrive on Wednesday.


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## Mike D. aka jmiked (Oct 28, 2008)

There have been half a dozen or so new Wolfe books listed for preorder in the last several weeks. Looks as though the release date is 21 July 2010. All but two are in the $6.50 range or less.

All but a dozen of the 40+ works are now in ebook form. Not bad for a writer who's been dead for 35+ years.

The entire TV series is now listed on Amazon for less than $60. Time for me to purchase!

Mike


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## Gertie Kindle (Nov 6, 2008)

jmiked said:


> There have been half a dozen or so new Wolfe books listed for preorder in the last several weeks. Looks as though the release date is 21 July 2010. All but two are in the $6.50 range or less.


I've ordered most of them. Not paying $9.99 yet. I'll save those for last.

Right now, I'm reading a trilogy that I'd never read before, Homicide Trinity. I just never get tired of these.



> All but a dozen of the 40+ works are now in ebook form. Not bad for a writer who's been dead for 35+ years.


Waiting for The Silent Speaker, another favorite. Soon I will have them all. YAY!!



> The entire TV series is now listed on Amazon for less than $60. Time for me to purchase!
> 
> Mike


I've got $50 in GC's coming from my Amazon Visa. Time to cash them in!!


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## Mike D. aka jmiked (Oct 28, 2008)

Gertie Kindle 'a/k/a Margaret Lake' said:


> I've ordered most of them. Not paying $9.99 yet. I'll save those for last.


Same here, I've not ordered any of the $9.99 ones yet. I'm hoping that the publisher has some way of noticing that the other publisher is getting sales and they aren't. 

Mike


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## Gertie Kindle (Nov 6, 2008)

jmiked said:


> Same here, I've not ordered any of the $9.99 ones yet. I'm hoping that the publisher has some way of noticing that the other publisher is getting sales and they aren't.
> 
> Mike


I think Crimeline is a division of Bantam so I don't understand the big price difference. I'm just happy most of them are reasonably priced.


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## jj2339 (Jan 18, 2010)

For the Nero Wolfe books, is it necessary to read them in order? I know for Marple and Poirot occasionally they reference a prior story, but generally are standalone.  I wasn't sure if the Nero books are best read in order, or if I could just pick the ones that interest me the most?


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## Gertie Kindle (Nov 6, 2008)

jj2339 said:


> For the Nero Wolfe books, is it necessary to read them in order? I know for Marple and Poirot occasionally they reference a prior story, but generally are standalone. I wasn't sure if the Nero books are best read in order, or if I could just pick the ones that interest me the most?


Occasionally a previous case will be mentioned. Sometimes those cases were never in any of the books, just something made up.

You can read them in any order. Just understand that nobody gets any older in these books, but they do change with the times.

The first one was _Fer-de-Lance_. Here's a link to the books in order.

http://www.fantasticfiction.co.uk/s/rex-stout/

There are three that reference the same master criminal. The first one was _And Be a Villain_, then _The Second Confession_ and finally _In the Best of Families._.

My personal favorites are _The Doorbell Rang_, _The Silent Speaker_ (not kindleized yet) and _The Mother Hunt_.

Until you read several of them, don't read the novella collections. You won't enjoy them as much if you don't understand the dynamics between Wolfe and Archie.

Happy reading. I love these guys.


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## daringnovelist (Apr 3, 2010)

jj2339 said:


> For the Nero Wolfe books, is it necessary to read them in order? I know for Marple and Poirot occasionally they reference a prior story, but generally are standalone. I wasn't sure if the Nero books are best read in order, or if I could just pick the ones that interest me the most?


No, it's fine whatever order. Especially with the ones written after WWII. Stout made a point of keeping the world inside the Brownstone the same - with Archie and Wolfe and the others all remaining the same age, same relationships - even as he depicted the world outside as changing. And he did a marvelous job of keeping those characters and relationships fresh, even as they didn't change.

Camille


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## Mike D. aka jmiked (Oct 28, 2008)

I'd agree with Gertie; the three Zeck novels (_And Be a Villain_, _The Second Confession_ and _In the Best of Families_) really need to read in publication order. It's not necessary for the others, though.

Mike


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## Gertie Kindle (Nov 6, 2008)

The relationship between Wolfe and Archie is key to the series, but there is one other thing that propels you forward in each book. Wolfe (but sometimes Fritz) will use a word or a phrase and then Archie carries it along. It might only be used two or three times, but it gives the story a common thread besides the murder(s).

I plucked my paper copy of _The Silent Speaker_ off the shelves and read it over the weekend. Still one of my faves.


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## Mike D. aka jmiked (Oct 28, 2008)

This morning I was saddened to learn that Maury Chaykin passed away yesterday at the age of 61.

Mr. Chaykin gave arguably the best of the Nero Wolfe screen/TV performances in the A&E TV series made from 2001-2002.

http://www.cbc.ca/arts/tv/story/2010/07/27/maury-chaykin-obit.html

I just got the Nero Wolfe complete DVD set last week. I'll have to start watching them and enjoy his performance.

Mike


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## Gertie Kindle (Nov 6, 2008)

jmiked said:


> This morning, I was saddened to learn that Maury Chaykin passed away yesterday at the age of 61.
> 
> Mr. Chaykin gave arguably the best of the Nero Wolfe screen/TV performances in the A&E TV series made from 2001-2002.
> 
> ...


That is sad. I wish they had kept making the series.

Got my set the day I left on vacation, so I'll watch it when I get back.

Reading Fer-de-Lance right now.


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