No one can miss Stout's indebtedness to Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. He takes the basic concepts of the Great Detective and the sleuthing duo, and exploits the possibilities even more thoroughly than had his precursor.

Thus, he portrays Wolfe as a superman, but humanizes him by giving him some engaging weaknesses, as Conan Doyle had done with Sherlock Holmes. Archie Goodwin takes Watson's roles, but puts up with much less superciliousness from the Great Detective. As Baring-Gould and others have pointed out, Nero Wolfe physically resembles Sherlock's obese and indolent brother Mycroft. And the two authors share a set of priorities: One reads Conan Doyle and Stout for fine writing, good yarns, and fascinating characters, not to find out who did it.

Stout also looks back to Agatha Christie and Dorothy Sayers, among others, in letting readers experience vicariously the luxuries of the rich. As usual...