Nero Wolfe supporting characters

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Nero Wolfe stories, written for 40 years by Rex Stout, and then continued by Robert Goldsborough, are populated by a cast of many supporting characters, some of whom die, or get forgotten. These stories sustain the illusion that whenever you start a Nero Wolfe story, you are in a familiar world.

Contents 1 The Wolfe Household 2 Wolfe's friends 3 Other private detectives whom Wolfe employs 4 Police Contacts 5 Other professionals 6 Notes

[edit] The Wolfe Household

• Nero Wolfe — private detective in Manhattan where he has lived many years, who is originally from Montenegro^[1]; orchid fancier; chef
• Archie Goodwin — private detective and live-in assistant to Mr. Wolfe
• Fritz Brenner — chef. Fritz knew Nero before Archie
• Theodore Horstmann — Theodore and Archie just tolerate each other. Theodore has a sister in New Jersey and sometimes spends time there. During prolonged absences, there is sometimes a need to bring in a substitute orchid nurse.

[edit] Wolfe's friends

• Marko Vukčić — another Montenegrin whom Wolfe has known since childhood; possibly a blood relative (since "vuk" means "wolf"). Marko owns the high-class Rusterman's Restaurant in Manhattan. When Marko is killed in The Black Mountain, then Wolfe inherits Rusterman's and runs the restaurant as a trustee for several years. The Tecumseh Fox novel The Broken Vase (1941) mentions a Rusterman's Bar.
• Lewis Hewitt — a well-heeled orchid fancier, and one for whom Wolfe did a favor (as told in Black Orchids). During a prolonged absence (as told in the novel) In the Best Families, Wolfe sends his orchids to Hewitt for care while Marko manages Wolfe's business affairs.
• Carla Lovchen^[2] — Wolfe's adopted daughter, who appears in only two stories: Over My Dead Body, and The Black Mountain.

[edit] Other private detectives whom Wolfe employs

• Saul Panzer — the third best in the world, at least according to Archie Goodwin. He and Wolfe share mutual respect.
• Fred Durkin — both reliable and honest, yet by no means a brilliant operative. Fred's qualities, both bad and good, are explored in Goldsborough's novel Silver Spire.
• Orrie Cather — Orrie Cather is something of a complement to Durkin: he's bright and confident in his abilities - sometimes too confident. Orrie also thinks he could replace Archie as Wolfe's assistant. Orrie's character and abilities are central to two Rex Stout novels: Death of a Doxy and A Family Affair.
• Johnnie Keems — another operative used in some Wolfe stories; he is killed in the novel Might As Well Be Dead.
• Del Bascom — runs a large conventional detective agency in Manhattan. Wolfe sometimes subcontracts to Bascom when he needs a lot of men for something (as in The Silent Speaker).
• Theodolinda (Dol) Bonner and Sally Colt — A pair of female operatives whom Wolfe employs at need. They also play a major role in the novella Too Many Detectives. Rex Stout had an idea to spin them out into a separate series of detective stories. Although this idea never got far, they appear in a few Wolfe mysteries in places where female operatives are required, such as The Mother Hunt^[3]

[edit] Police Contacts

• Inspector Cramer — head of Homicide in Manhattan (in some of the stories, it's implied that his authority extends to other NYC boroughs)
• Sergeant Purley Stebbins — assistant to Cramer
• Lieutenant George Rowcliffe — Police lieutenant whom Wolfe particularly hates for executing a search warrant on his home. Stutters when angry. Bellicose and attempts to intimidate (coerce) suspects and witnesses. In the Wolfe stories, Rowcliffe is a poster boy for the uglier side of law enforcement. However, at no point in the Wolfe canon is a dishonest policeman uncovered by Wolfe's actions, although stupidity by DA's and Rowcliffe are commonplace.
• Commissioner Hombert — in some of the novels the New York Police Commissioner^[4].
• Skinner — The New York County (Manhattan) DA
• Mandelbaum — Manhattan DA in later Wolfe stories
• Cleveland Anderson — The Westchester County DA: Wolfe and Goodwin have an adversarial relationship with Anderson based on incident mentioned but not described in the first Wolfe novel Fer-de-lance^[5].
• Ben Dykes — head of Westchester County detectives
• Con Noonan — lieutenant with the New York State Police. He dislikes Wolfe and Goodwin and would lock them up under the feeblest excuse (see the story Door To Death in the book Three Doors To Death).

[edit] Other professionals

• Nathaniel Parker — When Wolfe, Archie, or assorted clients find themselves in need of a lawyer, Wolfe generally recommends Nathaniel Parker. Parker is an old friend, and shares some of Wolfe's abilities; i.e., Parker converses with Wolfe in French during the story "Immune From Murder"
• Doctor Vollmer — A medical doctor who lives only a few houses away. Like Parker, the doctor is one of Wolfe's few friends. Wolfe calls upon Vollmer whenever a dead body is discovered (which happens often). In the novel The Silent Speaker, Vollmer contrives an illness severe enough that Wolfe cannot be bothered by anyone. Vollmer's motivation, aside from friendship, is that Wolfe helped him out with a would-be blackmailer years ago.
• Lon Cohen — senior journalist at the Gazette newspaper, pointedly described in some of the stories as not an editor because he prefers to write stories himself. Lon is willing to help Archie with background information on both suspects and prospective clients, but gets scoops in return when Wolfe nails a murder suspect.

[edit] Notes

1. ^ Venetian Italian for "black mountain", which would be "montenero" in Tuscan (standard) Italian
2. ^ "Lovchen" is not a family name; rather, it is the name of the black mountain from which Montenegro gets its name
3. ^ Also one of the few stories where Wolfe has to flee his home to escape arrest
4. ^ In The Rubber Band, an early Wolfe mystery, Wolfe displays great respect, if not always cooperation towards Cramer, but thinks Hombert "should go back to diapers", an opinion indirectly shared by Cramer himself who points out that Hombert is a politician and not a policeman. In The Silent Speaker, Wolfe gets a chance to humiliate Hombert and help Cramer in the process
5. ^ In that first story, Wolfe further annoys Anderson, who has married money, by forcing him to "bet" Wolfe $10,000 (in 1934) that Wolfe can solve a mystery in Anderson's jurisdiction which Anderson proves completely unable to solve, and forces him to pay up before Wolfe's whimsical notion of "solving" a crime becomes evident