Black Orchids
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
 | |
| Author | Rex Stout |
|---|---|
| Cover artist | Alan Harmon |
| Language | English |
| Series | Nero Wolfe |
| Genre | Detective fiction |
| Publisher | Farrar & Rinehart |
Publication date | May 21, 1942 |
| Publication place | United States |
| Media type | Print (hardcover) |
| Pages | 272 pp. (first edition) |
| OCLC | 4547020 |
| Preceded by | Where There's a Will |
| Followed by | Not Quite Dead Enough |
Black Orchids is a Nero Wolfe double mystery by Rex Stout published in 1942 by Farrar & Rinehart, Inc. Stout's first short story collection, the volume is composed of two novellas that had appeared in abridged form in The American Magazine:
- "Black Orchids" (August 1941, abridged as "Death Wears an Orchid")
- "Cordially Invited to Meet Death" (April 1942, abridged as "Invitation to Murder")
- Jacques Barzun and Wendell Hertig Taylor, A Catalogue of Crime — In the first, Wolfe and Archie are in fine form, and murder at a flower show provides a suitable background for Wolfe's talents and predatory instincts. Archie himself innocently pulls the trigger. The second story is less satisfactory, involving as it does a highly debatable move by the murderer to disarm suspicion. Besides, too many animals.[1]
- Time, "Murder in May" (June 1, 1942) — Nero Wolfe and his ebullient amanuensis Archie Goodwin are here at top form in two "novellas" — "Black Orchids" and "Cordially Invited to Meet Death." The first concerns a cleverly contrived murder at New York's annual Flower Show. The second features an adroit bit of poisoning in the fantastic Riverdale ménage — and menagerie — of a successful party-arranger for Manhattan society. First-class entertainment.[2]
