Fiction_L Archives Rex Stout read-alikes Dates: 5/17/02,5:12 PM  through  5/27/02,12:35 PM  (11 postings) Search for: Select one or more indexes to search: 2011-current     2009-2010     2004-2008    1995-2003    (Matches from each index will be displayed separately in the results page.) Return to May 2002 thread menu   |   Fiction_L Archives Menu

FROM: Mary Dunn <[removed]@lacrosse.lib.wi.us>
REC'D: 5/17/02, 5:12 PM

Hi,

I'm compiling a list of Rex Stout read-alikes and don't seem to be
having any luck. Can anyone help?

Mary

FROM: Mary Van Dyke <[removed]@CLSN3046.glenview.lib.il.us>
REC'D: 5/17/02, 5:33 PM

Mary,

Try William F. Love--THE CHARTREUSE CLUE, THE FUNDAMENTALS OF MURDER,
THE RUBY-RED CLUE AND BLOODY TEN--the author admits that he patterned his
books on Rex Stout's Nero Wolfe--his Nero is a handicapped bishop living
in a brownstone--ex-cop is his Archie and a nun is his Fritz--I enjoyed
them.

Mary Van Dyke
Glenview (IL) Public Library

FROM: "Gary Niebuhr" <[removed]@mcfls.org>
REC'D: 5/18/02, 10:54 AM

>I'm compiling a list of Rex Stout read-alikes and don't seem to be
having any luck. Can anyone help?

I second the recommendation of the Bill Love books.

Other series that you might want to try are:

A. A. Fair--Bertha Cool and Donald Lam
Robert Goldsborough--continued the Stout series
Michael Leahey--Broken Machines and The Pale Green Horse

Gary Warren Niebuhr
Greendale Public Library

FROM: "Lesley K" <[removed]@rpl.lib.ar.us>
REC'D: 5/20/02, 9:31 AM

Melodie Johnson Howe wrote a pair of excellent Stout pastiches, with the
genders reveresed: THE MOTHER SHADOW and BEAUTY DIES. I've been waiting
on tenterhooks for about ten years for a third in the series, but I guess
it's not coming... :(

At 10:43 AM 5/18/02 -0500, you wrote:
> >I'm compiling a list of Rex Stout read-alikes and don't seem to be
>having any luck. Can anyone help?
>

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Lesley Knieriem [removed]@rpl.lib.ar.us
Reader's Advisory Librarian 479 - 621 - 1152
Rogers Public Library Rogers, AR 72758
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Nunc adeamus bibliothecam, non illam quidem multis
instructam libris, sed exquisitis. -- Erasmus
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

FROM: Dennis Lien <[removed]@tc.umn.edu>
REC'D: 5/20/02, 10:23 AM

At 04:32 PM 5/17/02 -0500, you wrote:
>Hi,
>
>I'm compiling a list of Rex Stout read-alikes and don't seem to be
>having any luck. Can anyone help?
>
>Mary

It's not really a "read alike" (more humor plus some sexual content),
but one ought to be aware of Lawrence Block's "Chip Harrison" series.
The first two books of the series (NO SCORE and CHIP HARRISON SCORES
AGAIN) introduces Chip, but are otherwise not relevant here. However,
with the third book, MAKE OUT WITH MURDER, Chip gets a job as Archie-
equivalent to private detective Leo Haig, a man who is obsessed with
Nero Wolfe and models his own career, living situation, etc. on him.
Haig and Harrison appear again in THE TOPLESS TUPLIP CAPER and a
couple of short stories. See

http://www.lawrenceblock.com/books_harrison.htm

Here's a website called "Beyond Wolfe" with a few other suggestions:

http://www.wolfeworld.8m.com/beyon~1.htm

and here's one on Wolfe pastiches:

http://www.geocities.com/Athens/8907/nero_pop.html

While these may be pastiches or parodies, there is no guarentee
all are read-alikes, of course. I spot at least one they missed:
a short story, "The Red Orchid," by Boileau and Narcejac, first
published in French in USURPATION D'IDENTITE and reprinted in
English translation in ELLERY QUEEN'S MYSTERY MAGAZINE, January
1961 issue.

I'm assuming any Wolfe fan has also read most or all of Stout's early
non-Wolfe mysteries--the three Tecumseh Fox books, the one Cramer-without-
Wolfe book, the one Dol-Bonner-without-Wolfe book, and two or three more.

Dennis Lien / U of Minnesota Libraries // [removed]@tc.umn.edu

FROM: [removed]@aol.com
REC'D: 5/21/02, 10:00 AM

I loved Dennis's "Nero Wolfe" response.

There's also the "Nero Wolfe Cookbook" and John McAleer's wonderful bio of
Rex Stout. IMHO - Stout was a certifiable genius and renaissance man. He
also invented the school banking program, and even a very clever method of
storing men's folded shirts. (Shallow drawers) He also created the "Mars"
series, which he found he had no interested in writing, and offered the
franchise, so to speak, to Edgar Rice Burroughs.

Couldn't resist the Stout trivia.

Binnie Syril Braunstein
Romance novelist/former librarian, who even went to a "Nero Wolfe" dinner at
a brownstone in New York

FROM: [removed]@aol.com
REC'D: 5/21/02, 10:11 AM

In a message dated 5/21/2002 10:07:01 AM Eastern Daylight Time,
[removed]@tc.umn.edu writes:

News to me. Is this documented someplace? I used to read a lot
about Burroughs, though I've let that slip in recent years, and
don't recall ever seeing this suggested before.

Dennis Lien / U of Minnesota Libraries // [removed]@tc.umn.edu

Dennis -

I think it's in the McAleer bio, which is upstairs - and I'm my way to the
dentist. But I read the thing from cover to cover when it came out, and I'm
pretty sure that's the source. I'll check and let you know for sure. And I
did love the Nero Wolfe pastiches, too!

Binnie Syril Braunstein
Romance novelist/former librarian

FROM: "christine jeffords" <[removed]@hotmail.com>
REC'D: 5/21/02, 10:11 AM

>From: [removed]@aol.com
>Reply-To: "Fiction_L" <[removed]@maillist.webrary.org>
>To: Fiction_L <[removed]@maillist.webrary.org>
>Subject: Re: Rex Stout read-alikes
>Date: Tue, 21 May 2002 09:27:55 EDT
>
>I loved Dennis's "Nero Wolfe" response.
>
>There's also the "Nero Wolfe Cookbook" and John McAleer's wonderful bio of
>Rex Stout.

Is that "Nero Wolfe of West --- Street"? I remember seeing it once in the
secondhand bookstore where I used to work. Good luck finding it--it's a
raree!

_________________________________________________________________
Join the world’s largest e-mail service with MSN Hotmail.
http://www.hotmail.com

FROM: Dennis Lien <[removed]@tc.umn.edu>
REC'D: 5/21/02, 10:21 AM

At 09:27 AM 5/21/02 EDT, you wrote:
He <Rex Stout> also created the "Mars"
>series, which he found he had no interested in writing, and offered the
>franchise, so to speak, to Edgar Rice Burroughs.
>
>Binnie Syril Braunstein

News to me. Is this documented someplace? I used to read a lot
about Burroughs, though I've let that slip in recent years, and
don't recall ever seeing this suggested before.

Dennis Lien / U of Minnesota Libraries // [removed]@tc.umn.edu

FROM: Dennis Lien <[removed]@tc.umn.edu>
REC'D: 5/21/02, 10:43 AM

At 02:03 PM 5/21/02 +0000, you wrote:
>
>
>
>>From: [removed]@aol.com
>>Reply-To: "Fiction_L" <[removed]@maillist.webrary.org>
>>To: Fiction_L <[removed]@maillist.webrary.org>
>>Subject: Re: Rex Stout read-alikes
>>Date: Tue, 21 May 2002 09:27:55 EDT
>>
>>I loved Dennis's "Nero Wolfe" response.
>>
>>There's also the "Nero Wolfe Cookbook" and John McAleer's wonderful bio of
>>Rex Stout.
>
>Is that "Nero Wolfe of West --- Street"? I remember seeing it once in the
>secondhand bookstore where I used to work. Good luck finding it--it's a
>raree!

Nope. NERO WOLFE OF WEST THIRTY-FIFTH STREET is by William Baring-
Gould (Viking Press, 1969; Bantam pb 1970 etc.) and is as the name
suggests a "Baker Street Irregular"ish biography of the character.

You're right about it being a rarity, but I had no idea HOW rare
until I checked ABEbooks just now. Somebody is asking $100 for
a copy of the first *paperback* edition with a worn spine and
overall only "very good" condition. Frightening for a 1970 pb
from one of the largest publishers--I'll have to find my copy and
put it in a plastic bag, I see.... (Six copies of the Viking
hc first edition also listed, ranging from $35 to $65.)

REX STOUT: A BIOGRAPHY is by John McAleer (Little, Brown, 1977; no
pb as far as I recall) and is a biography of the author himself.

THE NERO WOLFE COOKBOOK is by Rex Stout (Viking Press, 1973; Penguin
pb later).

Dennis Lien / U of Minnesota Libraries // [removed]@tc.umn.edu

FROM: Katherine Johnson <[removed]@epexchange.epnet.com>
REC'D: 5/27/02, 12:35 PM

I get the digest and am way behind, so apologies if someone has already
posted this suggestion. Ralph McInerny has written a series under the
pen name Monica Quill featuring a nun who pretty much stays in the
convent and sends her hench-nuns out to solve the crimes. They do the
leg work and bring witnesses in to be interviewed by the Mother
Superior, and she solves the mysteries by using her brilliant
intellect. She has a doctorate (I think) in history, and in my view
she's smarter than Nero Wolfe.

--
Katherine Bradley Johnson
NoveList Database Specialist
NoveList/EBSCO
[removed]@epnet.com
2634 Chapel Hill Blvd., Ste. 208
Durham, NC 27707-2830 USA
(919) 489-9412 x206 (voice)
(919) 489-7263 (fax)

Die Welt des Märchens ist die, der Welt der Wahrheit
durchaus entgegengesetzte und eben darum ihr so
durchaus ähnlich, wie das Chaos der vollendeten
Schöpfung ähnlich ist." -- NOVALIS.

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