Customer Reviews

Too Many Cooks

5 star:		(10)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

Nero Wolfe is the guest of honor when the greatest chefs in the world meet in West Virginia. He's honored and looking forward to all the great food but dreading the train trip itself.

They've hardly all gathered before the sparks fly. One of the chefs is universally despised, and it's really no surprise to the reader when he turns up dead. Not wanting to get involved in anything that might delay his return to his beloved brownstone, Wolfe vows to not get involved. In spite of his efforts, he finds himself getting sucked in. Can he stay alive, find the real killer, and still make his train?

My best friend has recently started reading these books and keeps recommending them to me, so I picked this one up. I can see why he likes them. This story is a great puzzle. I thought I had the plot figured out before the end, but I was only half right. Nero Wolfe and Archie Goodwin make for two interesting leads. I listened to the audio version, which made it a little hard to keep all the chefs straight. The further I went the easier it was, however. Michael Prichard does a great job of reading the story.

If this is an example of why Nero Wolfe a classic character in the mystery genre, I can see why. I will be looking for more books in this series.

In Rex Stout's fifth book in the series, Wolfe engages in two activites he detests: leaving the confines of his home and travel by any type of machinery (a train in this case). Wolfe and Archie travel to Kanawha Spa, West Virginia, where Wolfe has been invited to speak before a group of master chefs. Wolfe encounters more than just gourmet food when one of the chefs is murdered.

Stout really has a lot of fun with the story and characters as Wolfe's confrontational manner begins to emerge in the series. The characters are always colorful, but the supporting cast of chefs, wives, servants, and others is also enjoyable. Some of the most interesting books in the series are those in which Wolfe leaves the brownstone and is absent from his comforts: the plant rooms, his cook Fritz, his beer, his office. Still, it becomes evident early on that Wolfe is in complete control. Or is he? Find out the lengths that Wolfe will go to in the attempt to obtain the recipe for saucisse minuit.

If only A&E had continued the series...

It would have been great to see them do "Fer-de-lance" and "Too Many Cooks." While resonances of this story appear in A&E's depiction of the Ten for Aristology, the idea of the Fifteen Masters convening in West Virginia to hear Wolfe's disquisition on American haute cuisine is - fantasically appealing.

The Kanawha Spa is a proxy for the Greenbrier (which is actually in West Virginia). It's wonderful to see how Archie has to balance nursemaiding Wolfe with hunting down the killer, and even better to read Wolfe's methodical, respectful quizzing of the kitchen staff. This is the book where a character is established who, many years later, returns as an older man with ingrained beliefs.

As wise as Wolfe's sayings can be, it's wonderful to see their influence on someone's entire character and philosophy. This is an all-time great book, and, if A&E ever comes back to their senses...

I found this immensely enjoyable. Along with BEFORE MIDNIGHT, THE SILENT SPEAKER, AND BE A VILLIAN and PLOT IT YOURSELF, I consider it one of his best. Classic Wolfe and Goodwin.

One of Stout's best and one of the most fun reads I have ever had. It is hilarious, full of interesting characterizations, and plotted well enough to carry it through. Great fun!

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.

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
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.

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

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.