Two novellas, originally published in 1942, to entertain you. Black Orchids: Anyone who is familiar with Nero Wolfe knows that he rarely leaves his brownstone on West 35th Street in New York City. The only exceptions are for food and orchids. In this case it is the latter. Black orchids to be exact.Initially Wolfe dispatches his able assistant and legman, Archie Goodwin, to report on the rare plants on display at a flower show. Archie it would appear is more interested in the legs of a model

I so love the manners of the 1940s and the digs by Archie on Wolfe. The second story had one redeeming line: A scream is a scream.

Nero Wolfe and Archie Goodwin in 1940 and Black Orchids are in both short stories. I liked both of them.

Two mysteries, linked by the eponymous Black Orchids. In the first mystery, Archie and Wolfe discover a murder at the New York Flower Show. The fee is three black orchid plants, paid for by Wolfe's orchid-nemesis. In the second mystery, a woman hires Wolfe to expose a strange blackmail attempt. When she dies unexpectedly, Wolfe sends black orchids to the funeral. The second mystery is better than the first, but it's a bizarre mystery. The first mystery is less good, but the killer manages does g...

“It would take an extremely unattractive person to think of that."--Nero Wolfe, on the plot of "Cordially Invited to Meet Death" by Rex Stout, p. 159 of 192”“I got the address from her, and by good luck it wasn't Bucyrus, Ohio, but merely Brooklyn. Whatever else you want to say about Brooklyn, and so do I, it does have one big advantage, it's close.” --Archie Goodwin

The book consists of two novellas - Black Orchids and Cordially Invited to Meet Death - with black orchids being the only connection between them. Black Orchids. Anybody familiar with the series knows Nero Wolfe grows orchids and would go to any lengths to acquire rare specimens, including the unthinkable like leaving his house. It is easy to imagine what he would do to get his hands on the rarest of the said plants: the black orchids. Somebody managed to grow them and put them in a big plant ex...

Each of the Bantam reprints of the Nero Wolfe books has an introduction by a mystery author, and this one is by Lawrence Block, an author I haven’t yet dipped into — oh-so-many-books-so-little-time. In the intro, Block says: “...those of us who reread Rex Stout do so for the pure joy of spending a few hours in the most congenial household in American letters, and in the always engaging company of Nero Wolfe and Archie Goodwin.” I couldn’t have said it better myself.This edition contains two nove...

This is an other great Nero Wolfe novel by the master story teller Rex Stout. This book features two investigations by the way overweight master armchair detective Nero Wolfe and his smart assed, lady killer assistant Archy Goodwin. Both investigations concern murder and are very intreagueing to the reader.Enjoy and Be Blessed.Diamond

I am very late to the audio book fan club. Part of my dislike was that I'd mostly tried to experience them in a gymnasium while on a tread mill. With headphones. And noisy machines all around me. Then I tried them on my phone, and found the sound quality so poor that I couldn't stand to listen to it. (Yes, I'm all about that bass when I listen to anything!)Now that I've invested in a pretty little Altec Lansing blue tooth speaker, my life has changed! Ta-da! And even more so because I can lie in...

It is really hard to chose my favorite Nero Wolfe story because every one of them has something that makes me glad I read it. This one, though, has some of my favorite things: Wolfe leaving the old brownstone, Wolfe playing "chicken" with one of his oldest acquaintances; women on the premises - office, kitchen, dining room, bedroom. Holy Cow, how did Wolfe survive?It began with Archie appreciating the view of a woman's very fine legs. First published in 1942, this story has Wolfe sending Archie

Two long Nero Wolfe novellas. The title story--with Archie attending the flower show--is very good. The other--involving a high society event planner and a chimp--is less successful. But both are fun.

I reread this for The Mystery, Crime, and Thriller Group Dec. 2019 monthly read. Please join us. I am glad I did. I forgot a lot in the 45 years since I read it last including who did it.

I like the shorter Nero Wolfe mysteries even more than I do the full-length novels. They’re obviously more compact and that makes me feel like I can digest them more quickly and that deludes me into thinking I have a better chance to figure out who committed the crime—not that I came anywhere close to doing that in either of the two mysteries in this volume. The heart of the first story is the black orchid of the title—someone has bred a perfectly black orchid and Nero Wolfe wants it. He is so o...

This 9th entry in the Nero Wolfe series is actually 2 separate (but connected) novellas: Black Orchids and Cordially Invited to Meet Death. The paperback cover of this one is so familiar to me that I thought I must have read it at some point (even though this is one of the books missing from my Stout collection). But these 2 novellas were both new to me!In Black Orchids, we learn how Wolfe managed to obtain these rare flowers for his collection (it is his fee!). The murder case has some interes

4.5 Stars "I don’t know how many guesses there have been in the past year, around bars and dinner tables, as to how Nero Wolfe got hold of the black orchids. I have seen three different ones in print—one in a Sunday newspaper magazine section last summer, one in a syndicated New York gossip column a couple of months ago, and one in a press association dispatch, at the time that a bunch of the orchids unexpectedly appeared at a certain funeral service at the Belford Memorial Chapel. So here in th...

It’s amusing that the author introducing this admits that people re-read this series “not for the plots, which are serviceable, nor for the suspense, which is a good deal short of hair-trigger even on first reading…. No, those of us who reread Rex Stout do so for the pure joy of spending a few hours… in the always engaging company of Nero Wolfe and Archie Goodwin.”I agree about the plots, and I would say that Archie’s insolent, insouciant narration is almost the entire draw of this series. Well,...

This is the first book with multiple stories in it. Later on in the series you get a clue of that from the title. We'll see that as we go along. Sometimes the multiple stories have a common element tying them together. In this one the common element are black orchids. Each is introduced by a little note from Archie. The first story tells how Nero got the only known black orchids in existence. They were grown by a rival grower but fortunately for Nero the owner needed help that only Nero and Arch...

I got this books from my mom for Christmas and thoroughly enjoyed it. I am a big mystery fan --Agatha Christie and Murder She Wrote in particular. I have found a new favorite! Stay tuned for more Nero Wolfe mysteries as I read them. The characters of Nero and Archie are so compelling, and I love Archie's sense of humor. This volume actually has two mysteries in it- Black Orchids and Cordially Invited to Meet Death. The mysteries are full of great period details, Wolfe's obsession with his orchid...

I updated my stars to five on this story. I listened to the audio again last night. This story really is one of the funniest ones I have heard! Archie's comments are over the top.Nero actually goes out and attends a flower show. He has done it before, but Archie has never been so acerbic.

This is my FAVORITE Nero Wolfe story! I am sitting here grinning from ear to ear because I am so excited to share it with you! I would be dancing but I'm waiting until I finally get home to do so.Nero Wolfe is an amateur horticulturist who strictly specializes in orchids. The entire top floor of his brownstone has been converted to a green house and he spends precisely four hours a day attending to his plants. The Black Orchids starts with Archie stuck at a Flower Show examining the main exhibit...