I really like natural black licorice candy. There is a lot of licorice candy out there, some using other ingredients that taste like licorice and others using "artificial" licorice flavor. But there is plenty of real licorice out there for almost the same cost, so why not buy it?If you like Rex Stout's Nero Wolfe, you have plenty of stories (novels, novellas, short pieces) to read in the over 40 years that Stout cranked them out. If you are interested in Nero Wolfe, this isn't the place to start. Begin with Fer-de-Lance or The League of Frighted Men or the shorter stories of Trouble in Triplicate. It's not that Goldsborough does a bad job. All the trademark riffs on Archie and Nero are in The Bloodied Ivy. Plenty of touchstones with: orchids, food, Fritz's fussiness, Cramer's ill-humor, Lon's Gazette, Saul's perfection. But, it's not the real thing. Stout rarely wrote to give his audience the power to solve the mystery and neither does Goldsborough. Here, the mystery is less than it should be. And, Nero is more complimentary to Archie than usual.If you like Elvis Presley songs, and The King isn't around to sing, maybe an impersonator will do.
