Bitter End (The First Nero Wolfe Novella)

Rex Stout wrote thirty-three novel-length Nero Wolfe/Archie Goodwin adventures and thirty-eight (or forty-one, depending on how one counts or classifies re-writes/adaptions) novella-length stories featuring the two famous detectives. "Bitter End" is the first story to receive the shorter novella-length treatment. These shorter cases are unjustly considered inferior to the novels by some critics (and even some fans), but they simply are, for the most part, faster reads of adventures with well-developed plots and characters that compare very favorably with the full length novels, though if they are roughly one third in length.

"Bitter End," the first novella length adventure featuring Nero Wolfe and Archie Goodwin, appeared in the November 1940 issue of "The American Magazine" and marked the beginning of a long relationship between Rex Stout and that publication that lasted uninterrupted for 15 years. The story, which is dark and complex, explores the family, business and personal relationships of the owners and employees of a specialty food manufacturer. Wolfe has a personal encounter with one of their products that has been poisoned and feels compelled to investigate.

After its first appearance in The American Magazine, the novella was published in book form in a collection titled "Corsage: A Bouquet of Rex Stout and Nero Wolfe" first and later in the book titled "Death Times Three."

This eBook includes, as a bonus, the short story "Out of the Line" that was published first in "All-Story Cavalier Weekly" and is not available anywhere else in electronic format.