The Doorbell Rang

By: Rex Stout

Narrated by: Michael Prichard

There’s no one and nothing the great detective Nero Wolfe wouldn’t take on if the price was right. That’s something wealthy society widow Rachel Bruner is counting on when she writes him a check for a whopping hundred grand. But even Wolfe has a moment’s doubt when he finds out why the prize is so generous. For the oversize genius and his able assistant Archie Goodwin are about to lock horns with the FBI—and those highly trained G-men have a way with threats, tails, and bugs that could give even sedentary sleuth Nero Wolfe a run for his money.

Introduction by Stuart Kaminsky

“It is always a treat to read a Nero Wolfe mystery. The man has entered our folklore.”—The New York Times Book Review

A grand master of the form, Rex Stout is one of America’s greatest mystery writers, and his literary creation Nero Wolfe is one of the greatest fictional detectives of all time. Together, Stout and Wolfe have entertained—and puzzled—millions of mystery fans around the world. Now, with his perambulatory man-about-town, Archie Goodwin, the arrogant, gourmandizing, sedentary sleuth is back in the original seventy-three cases of crime and detection written by the inimitable master himself, Rex Stout.©1993 Rex Stout; (P)1999 Books on Tape Inc.

Critic reviews

“It is always a treat to read a Nero Wolfe mystery. The man has entered our folklore.”—The New York Times Book Review

Favorite Nero Wolf

Rex stout was a genius who wrote each of his books and short stories in one sitting with no editing. He wrote one a year and everything in the story in terms of color is authentic whether it be the score of a Yankee game or a presidential election.

The stories make you smile as old characters appear. If you've never read the earlier ones, Rex still paints each character with a fine brush.

One of my favorite Nero Wolfe mysteries!

Michael Prichard is an excellent narrator and is the perfect Archie + a mystery about a bullying corrupt FBI is - timely. (Seems absolute power corrupts absolutely and they’ve always been pretty rotten.) Wolfe gets the largest retainer of his life to teach J Edger and crew that they aren’t untouchable and it only gets better from there. Enjoy!

The best of the Nero Wolfe series? Perhaps.

If not the absolute best, this is one of the very best of the Nero Wolfe series. It has some of the best characterization and relationship development in the series along with some of the best imagery and cleverness plus it was a brave exposure of the abuses by the FBI of the time, earning Stout a thick FBI file. Although I enjoyed the TV version of this for the premier of the A&E series, the book was much, much better. Although this is a great book, I don’t think it should be one of the first read as it depends more than most on the history between characters.

I think this is one of my five favorite Nero Wolf stories

Wildest witch written a long time ago. It is still available Read today and it certainly is a great story most imaginative and fun to read or listen to. Thank you Rex Stout. I wish you were still living so that you could write some more stories.

Appreciations For A&E

Listening to Michael Prichard’s rendering of this fine book, again, has caused me to realize, again, how fine the A&E television representations of the Nero Wolfe Mysteries are.

It is clear that the recurrent cast of that series studied well these audiobooks in preparation for their work.

The pacing and phrasing of the utterances of the characters are very frequently clearly studied approximations, if not imitations, of the Michael Prichard renderings.