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BLACK ORCHIDS - with Cordially Invited to Meet Death - Nero Wolfe Customer Review: How Love or Money Leads to Murder
Black Orchids, by Rex Stout

This “Nero Wolfe” murder mystery recalls Raymond Chandler’s essay on “The Simple Art of Murder” where English murders are committed to create a puzzle for the reader to solve. The settings seem far out of date, like a 1920s murder mystery. It is a good story but seems implausible because of all the little tricks that occur to move the story towards its conclusion. The short lengths suggest it was written for a magazine rather than a book. While it involves the hobby of horticulture, the business of commercial plants and its rivalry over sales provides a new item for most people. These rare orchids are a dark brown, not really black; a contradiction to the usual bright colors of flowers. A symbol for the unusual? Wolfe puts the clues together to name the murderer. This makes him dependent on his detective, another unusual feature of these stories.

“Cordially Invited to Meet Death” tells of a woman who arranges parties for the upper brackets of New York society. Someone is sending anonymous letters to ruin her reputation. It looks as if Beth Huddleston’s own typewriter was used. Archie visits Huddleston’s home and finds a menagerie. Later Beth Huddleston dies quickly from a rare disease! Her brother says it was murder, but the police do not believe him. Analyzing the evidence reveals a diabolical murder scheme! Later there is an attempt on Beth’s secretary’s life by another poisoning. Wolfe invites the remaining residents of that house for a meeting in his office. He then explains just how he figured out the guilty person.

This “Nero Wolfe” character seems like a parody of some other fictional detectives in murder mysteries.

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