Too Many Cooks: A Nero Wolfe Mystery

New York: Farrar & Rinehart, 1938. First edition of Rex Stout's fifth Nero Wolfe mystery, in the uncommon dust jacket, with a scarce contemporary inscription. Too Many Cooks finds the orchid-loving, gourmand detective at a meeting of Les Quinze Maîtres, the fifteen greatest world's chefs, as their guest of honor. Wolfe is reluctantly pulled into service when one of the chefs is murdered during a taste-test challenge, and is ultimately satisfied not so much by solving the case as by having obtained a coveted secret recipe for Saucisse Minuit. Too Many Cooks was serialized in The American Magazine before publication, and promoted with a national tour that sent Stout and a cast of actors across the country in a dedicated Pullman car. Each stop featured reenactments of the novel's scenes and special press luncheons that served dishes from the recipes included in the novel's appendix: "dishes as hearty and robust as the crimes which he undertakes to solve," including Terrapin Stewed in Butter, Avocado Todhunter, and Shad Roe Mousse Pocahontas. A scarce signed copy of a high spot of modern detective fiction. Single volume, measuring 7.5 x 5 inches: [5], 303. Original red cloth stamped in black, top edge stained black, original unclipped color pictorial dust jacket, priced at $2.00. Recipe appendix printed on blue paper. Inscribed and signed by Stout: "Nov. 22 - 1940 - To Kip with love - Rex." Ink ownership stamp to endpaper above inscription. One-inch stain to fore-edge, expert restoration to jacket.