I read the Nero Wolfe stories more than once, even when the “solution” (e.g. “The Red Box”, “Please Pass the Guilt”) is weak. The characterization, the build-up, the pacing, all well-woven together. Agatha Christie was mainly about the “puzzles” (”Murder on the Orient Express”, “Ten Little Indians”). The answer is generally very well crafted, and in the case of “Express” and “Indians” brought a new twist to a genre that had seemed to exhaust every combination of solutions. But, once read, it is done. But I have read “Some Buried Caesar”, “The Doorbell Rang”, “Too Many Cooks”, “And Be a Villain” multiple times. I still want the recipe for sausage minuit.
Sausage Minuit. Page 194-5, The Nero Wolfe Cookbook, Saucisse Minuit:
“The proportions should vary with the climate, the season, the temperaments involved, the dishes to be eaten before and after, and the wine to be served. An inexpensive Spanish wine was a standard.
Onions, garlic, goose fat, brandy, red wine, beef broth, thyme, rosemary, ginger, nutmeg, cloves, bread crumbs, bacon, pork, goose, pheasant, salt, black pepper, pistachio nuts, pigs’ intestines.
Are you sure you want the rest?
in the case of “Express” and “Indians” brought a new twist to a genre that had seemed to exhaust every combination of solutions.
She kept trying to top herself. I think Roger Ackroyd went a little too far though.