I’ve read this one several times, and lent it to a friend who had once worked for the FBI.
The stories are very well-written, and I suspect that Rush Limbaugh has read them as well, because his phrase “intelligence guided by experience” is used regularly by Nero Wolfe when instructing Archie Goodwin.
Besides “The Doorbell Rang”, I strongly recommend “Some Buried Caesar” as his best combination of characterization and mystery solving (without over-relying on last minute info provided by Saul Panzer).
Rex Stout does an exceptional job of characterizing most of the women in the series. They are well developed, and (for the genre) realistically portrayed, even if they are usually too beautiful, young and rich to be true.
I also enjoyed “And Be a Villain”, mainly for the ingenious plot if not the presentation of the actual solution. “Too Many Cooks” steps into racial territory very early, and outside of some over-bearing sanctimony by Nero Wolfe, is still an enjoyable read.
The TV series does an admirable job of recreating the series. Hutton is a perfect Archie Goodwin, Chaykin is an acceptable Wolfe, though he sometimes screams, and WOlfe doesn’t scream. At most he bellows. There is a difference.
Here is a favorite exchange from “A Right to Die” (which is a follow-up to “Too Many Cooks”):
(Archie:)“Okay, Dolly Brooke killed her because she was going to marry a quote nigger unquote, and how do we prove it?’
(Nero:)He frowned. ‘I have told you not to use that word in my hearing.’
(Archie:)’I was merely quoting. It isn’t - ‘
(Nero:)’Shut up. I mean the word ‘unquote’ and you know it.”