Three Doors to Death

infobox Book |
name = Three Doors to Death
title_orig =
translator =


author = Rex Stout
cover_artist = Bill English
country = United States
language = English
series = Nero Wolfe
genre = Detective fiction
publisher = Viking Press
release_date = April 21, 1950
media_type = Print (Hardcover)
pages = 244 pp. (first edition)
isbn = NA
preceded_by = The Second Confession
followed_by = In the Best Families

"Three Doors to Death" is a collection of Nero Wolfe mystery novellas by Rex Stout, published by the Viking Press in 1950 — itself collected in the omnibus volume "Five of a Kind" (Viking 1961). The book comprises three stories that first appeared in "The American Magazine":

* "Man Alive" (December 1947)
* "Omit Flowers" (November 1948)
* "Door to Death" (June 1949)

Man Alive

A high-fashion designer consults Wolfe after she sees her uncle — believed to have committed suicide a year before — in disguise and in the audience at one of her shows.

Omit Flowers

As a favor for his oldest friend Marko Vukcic, Wolfe takes the case of Virgil Pompa, a chef who traded his genius for a high-paying job as the supervisor of a restaurant chain. He is in jail, charged with murder. Archie begins the story with the statement, "In my opinion it was one of Nero Wolfe's neatest jobs, and he never got a nickel for it."

Door to Death

When orchid nurse Theodore Horstmann leaves the brownstone indefinitely to tend to his sick mother, Nero Wolfe goes out — in the snow and on foot — into the raging wilds of Westchester to find a replacement. He and Archie find a corpse in the greenhouse, as well.

Adaptations

"A Nero Wolfe Mystery" (A&E Network)

"Door to Death" was adapted for the first season of the A&E TV series "A Nero Wolfe Mystery" (2001–2002). Directed by Holly Dale from a teleplay by Sharon Elizabeth Doyle, the episode made its debut June 24, 2001, on A&E.

Timothy Hutton is Archie Goodwin; distinguished character actor Maury Chaykin is Nero Wolfe. Other members of the cast (in credits order) are Colin Fox (Fritz Brenner), James Tolkan (Mr. Joseph Pitcairn), Marian Seldes (Mrs. Pitcairn), Kari Matchett (Lily Rowan), Nicholas Campbell (Andy Krasicki), Beau Starr (Lieutenant Noonan), Conrad Dunn (Saul Panzer), Ken Kramer (Neil Imbrie), Kristin Booth (Dini Lauer), Christine Brubaker (Sybil Pitcairn), Boyd Banks (Donald Pitcairn), Nancy Beatty (Vera Imbrie) and Francie Swift (Margot Dickey, uncredited)

In international broadcasts, the episodes "Door to Death" and "Christmas Party" are linked and expanded into a 90-minute widescreen telefilm titled "Wolfe Goes Out." [ [http://www.skymovies.com/skymovies/article/0,,-12985870,00.html Sky Movies] (UK) summary retrieved October 4, 2007; run length of "Wolfe Goes Out" is recorded as 90 minutes. Program listings for Sunday, November 7, 2004, broadcast on Sky Movies 2 records broadcast as widescreen format.]

"A Nero Wolfe Mystery" is available on DVD from A&E Home Video. ISBN 076708893X

"Nero Wolfe" (CBC Radio)

"Man Alive" was adapted as the seventh episode of the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation's 13-part radio series "Nero Wolfe" (1982), starring Mavor Moore as Nero Wolfe and Don Francks as Archie Goodwin. Written by Ron Hartmann, the hour-long adaptation aired on CBC Stereo February 27, 1982.

External links

*imdb title|id=0290573|title=A Nero Wolfe Mystery — "Door to Death"'
* [http://www.nerowolfe.org/nwm/nwm_s1_dtd/dtd-home.htm "A Nero Wolfe Mystery" — "Door to Death"] at The Wolfe Pack, official site of the Nero Wolfe Society

Release details

*1999, Canada, Durkin Hayes Publishing, DH Audio ISBN 1552046273 December 1999, audio cassette ("Man Alive" unabridged, read by Saul Rubinek)
*1995, USA, Bantam Crimeline ISBN 0553251279 February 1995, paperback

References