Rex Stout Mystery~

Last night I dreamed that Archie, from the Nero Wolfe stories, was trying to solve a serial killer's murders. He was stuck between admiration for the villain and wanting to solve the mystery. He really did want to do a copy-cat murder, perhaps to take care of the villain in an ironic manner, but I don't think that was his first choice. He said once, "They really should have listened to him." (He said this about the victims of the villain.) It was an interesting dream, but quite odd. Of course, Archie in the stories is nothing like that.

I think I dreamed about that because I was planning to start reading a Rex Stout book before I went to bed, but didn't have time. (I started it today: Three Doors to Death.)

Another oddity of the dream is that for at least part of the dream, I "was" Archie. This isn't uncommon for me. I'm often the main character in my dreams, male of female, & whatever the person's identity (which usually changes part way through). I'm used to it by now. (Later on in the dream, I switched between being a "good" Archie, and a teenager hiding from the villain and trying to figure out how to survive, using a science-fair sort of mindset.)

All of which is unimportant and doesn't have much to do with the topic of today's entry!

Anyway, I really enjoyed reading Rex Stout's Nero Wolfe mysteries when I was younger. (I especially liked Archie and the way nothing seemed to phase him. Once, he was brought in by the police for questioning for some reason or another, and took it all as a fun sort of lark, not getting upset or frightened in the least. If I recall, he's also kicked important people, even policemen, out of the house. *That* takes moxie.)

There was another mystery by Rex Stout that I really enjoyed. It starred a guy named Tecumseh Fox, and I had hoped that there were more in the series. At the time, I couldn't find any, so I was quite disappointed.

Today I investigated again. I found two in the library system (one of which is sure to be the one I read before). I requested both, and found two more on Amazon.com, which I may break down and buy at some point.

I also did some online research on Rex Stout. Apparently he was quite the genius. He read the Bible twice by the age of four. (source: http://avenarius.sk/stout/)

I also found this extraordinarily humorous essay, written by Stout, called "Watson was a Woman." You WILL laugh. :)

http://www.nerowolfe.org/htm/stout/Watson_was_a_woman.htm