Jonathan Kellerman on Nero Wolfe: THREE DOORS TO DEATH

In the '90s, the Nero Wolfe mysteries by Rex Stout were reprinted with brand-new introductions written by top names in detective and thriller fiction -- including Walter Mosley, Lawrence Block, and Diane Mott Davidson.

In 1995, Jonathan Kellerman handled the honors for a reprint of the 1950 collection Three Doors to Death, which included the novellas "Man Alive," "Omit Flowers," and "Door to Death."

"Stout had a wicked slant on lots of things and a gift for phrasing and rhythm and irony that remains remarkably contemporary," Kellerman writes, before exploring Wolfe's famed misanthropic and gluttonous traits. "Of course, there's more to Wolfe than constructive agoraphobia or cream sauce. Stout's stories are always great mysteries -- whodunits, howdunits, whydunits -- and they zip along at a pace that would leave the Great Man anoxic."

Read the whole essay in the 1995 Rex Stout Library edition of Three Doors to Death. The edition also includes a reprint of a 1958 letter from famed poet Carl Sandburg to Stout.

Related links:
Robert Parker on Nero Wolfe: IF DEATH EVER SLEPT
Detectives: NERO WOLFE and ARCHIE GOODWIN by Rex Stout
2009 Nero Award and Black Orchid Novella Award
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