The Black Mountain

Rating:
Summary: Wolfe's Silly Season
Review: Don't bother unless you've read all the good ones. Wolfe goes to his homeland (Montenegro) on a ridiculous mission. It comes from a period when Stout was trying to make his Wolfe books more sensationalist (also Even in the Best Families, The Golden Spiders). None of them really work. It can be good fun when Wolfe is derailed from his routine, but not here.

Rating:
Summary: Nero Wolfe fans: This is the one to skip!
Review: I love Nero Wolfe and his street-smart sidekick Archie Goodwin. But "The Black Mountain" is just a bore. I couldn't finish it. Do yourself a favor and get "The Rubber Band" or "Champagne for One" instead.

Rating:
Summary: Nero Wolfe fans: This is the one to skip!
Review: I love Nero Wolfe and his street-smart sidekick Archie Goodwin. But "The Black Mountain" is just a bore. I couldn't finish it. Do yourself a favor and get "The Rubber Band" or "Champagne for One" instead.

Rating:
Summary: They're actually UNabridged, if they're the ones I recorded.
Review: I'm the narrator of all the Nero Wolfe books from Audio Partners which you're listing on your website. I've just noticed that you list my recordings of THE BLACK MOUNTAIN, FER-DE-LANCE, THE GOLDEN SPIDERS, and WHERE THERE'S A WILL as abridged. Please note that these recordings are all actually UNabridged. It may make a difference with potential purchasers. Thanks.

Rating:
Summary: They're actually UNabridged, if they're the ones I recorded.
Review: I'm the narrator of all the Nero Wolfe books from Audio Partners which you're listing on your website. I've just noticed that you list my recordings of THE BLACK MOUNTAIN, FER-DE-LANCE, THE GOLDEN SPIDERS, and WHERE THERE'S A WILL as abridged. Please note that these recordings are all actually UNabridged. It may make a difference with potential purchasers. Thanks.

Rating:
Summary: Nero Wolfe walks through the mountains of his homeland.
Review: Someone has murdered Nero Wolfe's best friend Marko, owner of Rusterman's, the only restaurant Wolfe will frequent. More than food is at stake -- Marko and Wolfe share a mysterious history in their birthplace, the mountains outside Sarajevo. Marko is one of the very few who Archie has heard call Wolfe by his first name. Wolfe sets out to find the murderer and the adventure leads back to the Black Mountain, the place of his origin. Wolfe puts out more physical exertion in this one book than in all the others put together, which is one of its charms. But what really works for me is that he casts Archie in the role of his son for the sake of their cover story -- bringing to the front some of the subtle aspects of their "normal" relationship in the old brownstone. It's a stretch for everyone -- readers included -- but the emotional borders are widened as in no other Nero Wolfe novel, and the result is extremely satisfying. Stout's brilliance has, in my opinion, al! ways resided in great measure in his ability to suggest the emotions of his characters through a small action or phrase that lets the reader in without spelling it all out. In "The Black Mountain" Stout has brought to the surface the truth of the Archie/Wolfe relationship in full color with absolutely no pandering, and no cheapness.

Rating:
Summary: Okay, I'm an addict.
Review: There are more flaws in the plot than in my golf swing, but because of the theme, the setting, the emotion, and the close constant interaction between Wolfe and Archie I loved it.