Too Many Cooks/Champagne for One (Nero Wolfe)

Twenty years elapsed between the publication of "Too Many Cooks" (1938) and "Champagne for One" (1958), the former near the beginning of Rex Stout's career as a writer of crime fiction -- he'd already pursued more careers than most of us even aspire to -- and the latter not yet close to the end, with 18 to go! Stout (1886-1975) wrote the first 'Nero Wolfe' novel in 1934, after retiring in his forties with some wealth from the world of banking. In all, he wrote 73 novels depicting his slothful sleuth, the gargantuan gourmand and orchid fancier Nero Wolfe. Wow! And there are people who've read every one of them!But the years and the commercial success took a toll on Rex Stout's literary skills. "Too Many Cooks" is a brilliantly stylish, highly original book, crisp, witty, and compelling intellectually, with the added bonus of some serious social content. Fictional detective Nero Wolfe, the ultimate New York elitist, turns out to have been a thoroughgoing liberal about race at a time when even his fellow New Yorker - you know, "that man!" in the White House - wasn't. I would rank "Too Many Cooks" as one of the few real 'classics' of popular crime fiction; I've already reviewed it separately. "Champagne for One" is a throwaway, totally formulaic, neither as stylish in language nor as vivid in character portrayal as the earlier book. It's the sort of pop novel one reads when one doesn't want to engage in thought of any sort. The two don't belong on the same shelf, let alone in the same volume, in terms of interest. I suppose they've been linked because of the "food and drink" descriptions in both, but even in that vein, the earlier book surpasses the later as much as "tournedos Rossini" would surpass "chicken-fried steak."

Wolfe and Archie travel to an upstate lodge where a group of the world's greatest chefs are gathered for a regular scheduled meeting where there are Too Many Cooks. Part of their activities is to determine, one at a time, which of a list of ingredients is left out of a specially prepared sauce. A murder of one of the chefs interrupts, and Wolfe must determine who is responsible for the murder. It's a very challenging test for Wolf, and I enjoyed seeing the actions between him and Archie while they are so far from home.Champagne for One is the method to murder a young woman at a yearly charity event. Archie happens to be attending, quite by chance, so Wolfe feels compelled to investigate. Fortunately, a client comes forward to ask him to minimize any information that might be discovered about him during the course of the investigation. Archie was watching the young woman in question as she drank the champagne so it seems there was no way anyone could have poisoned her. Wolfe is able to find a slight crack through which he can detect the murderer.I enjoyed both novels and was glad to find them combined in one volume. I am a huge fan of Wolfe and Archie, and I highly recommend this book.

Too Many Cooks: One of Rex Stout's very best Nero Wolfe mystery novels. A gathering of the greatest chefs in the world; Nero wolfe having to travel by train to attend as the guest of honor; amazingly described dishes prepared by these chefs (I get hungry every time I read this book); and, by the way, a murder. Brilliantly written, a fantastic cast of characters and suspects, and an ingeneous solution in Mr. Wolfe's own inimitable style. I would recommend this book to anyone why might be interested in top-shelf mysteries.Champagne For One: A terrific story! As always with Rex Stout, brilliantly written, great plot and characters, and a surprise solution. This book is special in that it offers a unique insight into Archie Goodwin, Nero Wolfe's self-described confidential assistant-gofer-leg man-and, as needed, cattle prod. The murder, at a high-class charity soiree, takes place literally in front of Archie and he takes it very personally. His thoughts and comments on the subject are, by themselves, well worth reading this book. But don't limit yourself to just this segment. The entire book delivers the gamut of emotions and challanges your thought processes all the way to the final solution.

I read most of the Rex Stout books back in the 70s. So, my memory on many of them can be hazy.However, TWO MANY COOKS contained an extraordinary amount of offensive stereotypes and derogatory names. The story, dealing with the murder of a chef in West Virginia (yes, Wolfe's out of the brownstone!), and written in 1938, had an over-abundance of nastiness towards race and ethnic backgrounds. The mystery itself was too easy to solve, also, but that was an annoyance more than the racist remarks and actions. I would give this novel one star.However, CHAMPAGNE FOR ONE, was delightful. Yes, unmarried mothers was a "no-no" back in the 1950s, but Stout never insulted women (okay, Wolfe did, but not on their moral grounds). The characters, Archie, Wolfe, Cramer, and the rest of the crew, were wonderfully drawn. The murder was intriguing. I would have given this 5 stars as a stand alone book, but since the two novels were in one omnibus, I had to go for the low stars. Don't bother with COOKS. Read CHAMPAGNE.

The story opens with Wolfe grappling with the alarming perils of a train journey to Virginia, impelled by the lure of admiration and food, to attend an improbable celebration of cuisine where he's being honoured. Archie is predictably hilarious at Wolfe's expense until the appearance of a predictable lovely on the train distracts him from that agreeable occupation. The story is unsurprisingly improbable, which isn't a problem for fans of Nero Wolfe, and shows the great detective to compassionate advantage when he deals a series of devastating blows to the stupidity, ignorance and arrogance on which racism depends, in a scene all the more effective for the early, still-rough-round-the-edges Archie Goodwin who functions as a foil who, in contrast to Wolfe, fails to challenge prejudices prevalent when the book was written in 1938.Beautifully written, elegant, intelligent and witty.

The first of these two stories is unusual in that it takes place entirely away from the New York brownstone which is Wolfe's normal territory. It is however based around one of the detective's two regular passions: haute cuisine. A gathering of internationally remowned chefs shows that even in the 1930s (when this was written and set) such men were already completely up themselves and that there is nothing new under the sun. Also typical of the time is the casual racism displayed by the police and it is good to report that Wolfe confronts it head on and wins.The second story is back on more familiar ground; Wolfe doesn't stir from his home or his routine and there is bad blood in New York high society in more ways than one. Fantastic stuff from Rex Stout.

Too Many Cooks was off to a slow start, mainly because there were a whole bunch of foriegn names to keep up with in the first couple of chapters. However, I soon got the hang of it, and as usual Rex Stout tells a good tale, and Nero Wolfe and Archie are a very special team.

I'm hooked

An interesting idea to combine two of Rex Stout's novels in a single offering. There is a palpable difference between "Champagne for One," a novel written around 1960 and "Too Many Cooks"which was written twenty years earlier. The two stories seem to have little in common or anything really to link them beyond the basic idea of Wolfe being drawn into a case against his will, and of course revealing the killer by confronting all of the suspects with the facts of the case in a grand climax.Since "Champagne for One" was seen as part of A&E's late and much lamented Nero Wolfe Mysteries series, I won't say much about it except that it is the inferior part of the package. "Too Many Cooks" was published relatively early in Stout's career as a mystery novelist and pushes the boundaries of what we expect from Wolfe. The Great Man is lured not merely out of his brownstone home in New York City but even out of New York State, specifically to the wilds of a resort in West Virginia. Only two things could lure Wolfe out of his natural habitat and since there are no orchids in sight the lure has to be food. Wolfe has been invited to participate in a meeting of the world's greatest chefs. Naturally there's a murder - the death of a chef who all of the others hated - and naturally Wolfe has no desire to tax his brain to resolve it until his hands are forced twice by circumstance.There's one aspect of "Too Many Cooks" that should probably be commented on. This is one of the few Rex Stout novels to feature African American characters prominently. The novel takes place in 1938 and there are certain words used towards the Black characters that would be considered by a modern audience to be derogatory and definitely racist. Most prominent of these is the "N-word" but there are others, some of them uttered by Archie Goodwin, that a modern audience might not immediately realize are referring to the Black characters in the book. The interesting point isn't that Stout uses the words themselves, but rather how he allocates them. The "N-word" is used exclusively by the characters living in West Virginia; the County Prosecutor, the Sheriff, the hotel detective. Archie, who is from the North but is a native-born American doesn't use that word but he does use other expressions that modern audiences - once they figure out who is being referred to - would be uncomfortable with. It makes it clear that Archie feels a superiority towards them. At one point he even tells Wolfe that he won't be able to get information out of them the way he would with a White man. It is only Wolfe, the cosmopolitan naturalized citizen from Europe, who refers to them either as Black or as Negroes and who treats them as he would a white person he was seeking information from, offering them food and drink, showing them respect and getting respect in return. Which is more than you can say about his treatment of most of the women who cross his path in the course of the novel. But then misogyny is one of Wolfe's abiding characteristics.Even though the revelation of the identity of the murderer is is a bit anticlimactic - he's not a central character through most of the story - "Too Many Cooks" the book is an enjoyable read and one of Stout's best although "Some Buried Caesar" is still my personal favourite thanks to the introduction of Lilly Rowan.