Already by this time Stout was making good use of the special advantages of the series. Reading Too Many Cooks, for the many who know the earlier novels, is a return to a well-loved context. The novel is self-contained, however. The references to established elements are self-explanatory or peripheral, and thus a first-time reader of Stout would not get lost. If one ignores the intertextuality of the Nero Wolfe saga and examines Too Many Cooks on its own, one finds a variation on the classic country house murder. Stout brings together a group of quirky characters in an isolated setting, strews the ground liberally with motives and clues and red herrings, and invites the reader to match wits with the detective. Although the characters do a great deal of eating and talking, there is enough conflict, suspense, and action (even Wolfe gets shot at) to keep the pages...