Too Many Women (Paperback)

~ (Author)

Editorial Reviews

Review

"It is always a treat to [hear] a Nero Wolfe mystery. The man has entered our folklore." -- The New York Times Book Review

"Nero Wolfe, the fat detective of Rex Stout's novels, towers over his rivals... he is an exceptional character creation." -- The New Yorker

"Rex Stout, through the voice of Archie telling us about his world (a full third of which was occupied by Nero Wolfe), raised detective fiction to the level of art with these books. He gave us genius of at least two kinds, and a strong realist voice that was shot through with hope." -- Walter Mosley --This text refers to the Audio Cassette edition.

Product Description

Archie, Nero Wolfe's assistant, goes undercover to investigate a murder at a Wall Street firm, where he discovers a fringe benefit: hundreds of women work there. Everyone's alibi is air-tight, so Archie and Wolfe set a trap. Which woman will fall into it? A Classic Nero Wolfe Mystery. Complete and unabridged. 6 cassettes. --This text refers to the Audio Cassette edition.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 176 pages
• Publisher: Bantam Books (July 1985)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0553250663
• ISBN-13: 978-0553250664
• Product Dimensions: 6.7 x 0.7 x 0.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.4 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #795,341 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars One of the best Wolfe's!, January 4, 2003

By	"[e-mail]" (Moorpark, CA USA) - See all my reviews

With my reading of this, I have read every Nero Wolfe novel. This is one of the best, in my opinion. Archie is sent to investigate whether a company's employee was murdered, or it was an accident. His interactions with one of the owners, a vegetarian with a taste for the exotic, are worth the price of the book alone. Archie also gets to put on his charm, and literally wine and dine plenty of women in this story, not to mention engage in his virtual warfare with Wolfe, until finally the mystery is solved. All of our favorites, from Saul to Fritz to Cramer are also present in this story. I was kept guessing until the very last page; I was suprised at how the end turned out. For me, that's the hallmark of a good mystery. The Wolfe books are all fairly formulaic, and this is a classic of that formula, but it works quite well.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars No Such Thing!, September 6, 2005

By	John P Bernat (Kingsport, TN USA) - See all my reviews (TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

This review is from: Too Many Women (Audio Cassette)

Some have criticized Stout's postwar Nero Wolfe stories as reactionary and lacking sparkle and creativity.

Not this one. Yes, the plot device is predictable: that Archie is irresistable to women, and would do well planted in a big office disguised as an efficiency expert. The office has hundreds of good-looking women for Archie to interview, and he thinks he's died and gone to heaven for a while...

Here, the dialogue sparkles and the plot is pretty good. Now, it is true that you have to put aside your wince reflex regarding rampant sexism in this one. If you can manage that, though, it's a great read.

Michael Prichard once again does a spectacular job on the audiobook version. I especially appreciate his ability not only to do Wolfe better than anybody, but to handle multiple female roles distinctly and without flummery.

5 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Archie in his favorite element, June 18, 2002

By A Customer

This review is from: Too Many Women (Audio Cassette)

An employee of a very large corporation dies in a hit-and-run accident. Rumors abound that it was murder, disrupting morale. Nero and Archie are hired to either scotch the rumors or find the truth re: the mysterious death. These circumstances put Archie smack dab in the middle of hundreds of young working women -- many of them suspects, most of them of interest to Archie on other levels. This case gives him a chance to put many steak and wine dinners and many evenings of dancing on the old expense account, while he is in search of clues in this particularly confounding case. Neither the police nor Wolfe have much luck solving it for the longest time, and even Archie is frustrated by their lack of success (if not by the scenery he encounters along the way). This is very much Archie's story, and I thoroughly enjoyed it. I figured out the mystery myself rather early on -- something I'm proud of, since that seldom happens to me in Wolfe stories. Still, I had a wonderful time with this book, and especially got a kick of Wolfe's snorting dismissals of Archie more personal interest in the ladies. I also enjoyed reading about women in the workplace in those long ago days. How times have changed! All the women seemed to be in administrative positions. If they wanted power within the corporation, they got it through working for progressively more powerful men -- or in the case of Mrs. Pine, installing her husband on the board of directors. In that regard, this was a bit like unearthing a time capsule.