I agree with Marian! Culinary mysteries bring together my two loves!! I read cookbooks in addition to mystery books and also just got a new copy of the Nero Wolfe Cookbook. I was fortunate to get an older penguin copy (I think it is penguin--it is Green!!) manyyears ago and have tried a number of the recipes. I'm no Fritz, but can enjoy the food as much as Wolfe and Archie. Diane Mott Davidson ranks right up there--foodwise, as well as the ladies from Hemlock Falls. You can readh me at my e-mail--phplummer@infoave.net I am a school teacher and use both mysteries and cooking in my exceptional education classes. We publish a cookbook each year (A REAL Cookbook--this years is a 300+ page book with over 400 recipes with international recipes gathered from Embassies.) I am thinking of using food in mysteries next year for our theme. Any ideas or suggestions??

Pat, I think that's a great idea! The only other mystery I can think of immediately that discusses food is the Spenser series. I am in awe of the speed and ease with which he whips up a gourmet meal from scraps, leftovers, and whatever he can find in his kitchen!

I would love to have a Nero Wolfe cookbook. I would also love to have a Nero Wolfe orchid book. Where do you find them?

Nancy, Archie wasn't Sherlock's nephew. Nero was the illegitimate son of Sherlock Holmes and "the woman"--Irene Adler. I am also a huge Sherlock fan, but bigger Nero fan.

Scarlett

I have a complete Nero Wolfe List! Just email me, and I'll send it right out. Please put Nero List in the Subject. I had to change servers, so if you've seen this post before, please note the new addy :) Thanx, Missy darkstar@tcis.net

I'm glad to see that Nero still has some fans out there... Did anyone ever catch the TV movie based on Dol Bonner, which starred Crystal Bernard, Annabeth Gish, and Rob Estes? It was truer to spirit than that travesty of a TV series. I gave up after the episode where Nero actually tries to set Archie up with a woman. (That's like having Peter Falk play Hercule Poirot.) A pity, because the casting could've worked.

If you had to cast the series again today, who would you pick? Living actors only, please.

Where on Earth did this rumor of Nero being Sherlock and Irene's illegitimate son come from? I've never heard it.

The theorey originally came from (William?) Clark, and is based on such observations as:

Both men accept the need for firearms in their professions - Holmes always told Watson to bring his revolver, similar with Wolfe - although neither was personally fond of guns.

Their first names contains the letters -er-o- and their last names, -ol-e

Personally, I found it quite silly. It was reprinted in W.S. Baring Gould's _Nero Wolfe of West 45th Street_

--- mjt

Mark: "Personally, I found it quite silly. It was reprinted in W.S. Baring Gould's _Nero Wolfe of West 45th Street_ "

Along with Rex Stout's (?) treatise, "Watson was a Woman." I think an adjunct theory is that Archie is WOLFE'S nephew.

I, also, have found a copy of the Wolfe cookbook, and I marvel at how anyone can take pleasure in making things so complicated. Don't just scramble the eggs--oh, dear, me, no--how common! I greatly enjoyed reading the book, but I could never use it.

While Wolfe was no slouch in the kitchen, it was Fritz who did most of the cooking -- and cleaning and laundry and everything else except tending the orchids. I wish I had a Fritz to tend my house!

Do you think Wolfe could afford such a household today? He'd have to charge pretty stiff rates, but he wouldn't have to worry about 70% tax brackets, either.

It really is too bad that Rex Stout died before the era of Olestra and Nutrasweet and microwave ovens -- I would have loved to hear his impression of them (in Wolfe's voice, of course).

I am very new at this but interested in the discussion. I have been a Nero Wolfe fan for years. Our house burned the week before Christmas and I lost all of my Rex Stout books (over 500 hardcover mysteries from many authors were lost). My daughter found a couple of Rex Stout books a few weeks after the fire and I had to read them a couple of times just to get my "Archie Fix". Look forward to joining the discussions.