Rex Stout Books in Order

76 books are credited to Rex Stout, published between 1913 and 2015; 10 of them appeared after Rex Stout's death in 1975. The first book is Her Forbidden Knight (1913) and the newest is Eeny, Meeny, Miney, Mo, and FLO! / Eeny Meeny Murder Mo (2015). Publication order is the reading order below.

Books: 76
Published: 1913–2015
Confirmed: 76 of 76 titles
Pages on record: 12,325 in 55 of 76 books
Reading time: 205–308 hours

Reading time is an estimate, not a recorded figure: 12,325 pages at 300 words a page, read at 200–300 words a minute, covering the 55 of 76 titles with a page count on record.

See all 76 books in order Printable Rex Stout checklist

Nero Wolfe, a private investigator in New York, is the figure Rex Stout is listed for. Fer-de-Lance, also published as Meet Nero Wolfe (1934), opens that run, which extends through novels and short stories; the Tecumseh Fox books and a set of standalone novels sit beside it. Stout's catalogue holds 76 titles, beginning with Her Forbidden Knight (1913), and is listed as likely complete.

How many Rex Stout books are there?

Rex Stout has 76 books, released between 1913 and 2015. 10 of them were published after Rex Stout's death in 1975. They include 2 separate series.

Rex Stout characters in order

The character linked below has its own reading-order page.

Nero Wolfe books in order 71 books

Rex Stout books grouped by series

Each title below is a row in the publication-order table above. None of these groups has a reading-order page of its own on this site.

Nero Wolfe by Rex Stout in order

47 books

1. Fer-de-Lance / Meet Nero Wolfe
2. The League of Frightened Men
3. The Rubber Band / To Kill Again
4. The Red Box / Case of the Red Box
5. Too Many Cooks
6. Some Buried Caesar / The Red Bull
7. Over My Dead Body
8. Where There's a Will
9. Black Orchids
10. Not Quite Dead Enough
11. The Silent Speaker
12. Too Many Women
and 35 more in the table above

Rex Stout Standalone Novels

15 books

15 titles published under this heading without a numbered place in a series.

Nero Wolfe Short Stories/Novellas

6 books

6 titles published under this heading without a numbered place in a series.

Rex Stout Short Story

4 books

4 titles published under this heading without a numbered place in a series.

Tecumseh Fox in order

3 books

1. Double for Death
2. Bad for Business
3. The Broken Vase

Rex Stout Non-Fiction

1 book

1 title published under this heading without a numbered place in a series.

Rex Stout Books in Chronological Order

By publication date, the Rex Stout books run from Her Forbidden Knight (1913) to Eeny, Meeny, Miney, Mo, and FLO! / Eeny Meeny Murder Mo (2015), the sequence in the table above. No separate story order is recorded for Rex Stout in the book listings this catalogue merges, so publication order is the only order on record.

Do you have to read Rex Stout books in order?

You only need to read Rex Stout books in order within each series: the books listed here span 2 separate series, and each series has its own publication order.

Where to start with Rex Stout

Start with Fer-de-Lance / Meet Nero Wolfe (1934), the first Nero Wolfe book. The earliest catalogued title overall is Her Forbidden Knight (1913).

What is the newest Rex Stout book?

Eeny, Meeny, Miney, Mo, and FLO! / Eeny Meeny Murder Mo (2015) is the newest Rex Stout book released so far.

Is there a new Rex Stout book coming?

No next Rex Stout book is announced in the catalogue, which is a gap in the listings it merges rather than a sign that the run has ended.

Awards Rex Stout has won

Wikidata records 1 award for Rex Stout. Each row states whether the title won or was shortlisted, and the year the award was given.

The Grand Master1959Won

Rex Stout at a glance

Died: Rex Stout died in 1975, according to Wikidata.
After death: Books credited to Rex Stout are still being published after Rex Stout's death in 1975; the newest appeared in 2015.
Release pace: Rex Stout books have appeared about one a year on average.
Length: 12,325 pages across the 55 of 76 books with a recorded length, a median of 219 pages each.
Busiest decade: Most Rex Stout books, 18 of 76, were published in the 1950s.

What the Rex Stout books are about

62 of the 76 Rex Stout books carry subject tags in Open Library's catalogue. The subjects below are the ones that recur across them, most frequent first: private investigators is tagged on 58 of 62. The subjects are cataloguers’ headings, not a plot summary.

Private investigators 58 of 62 books
Mystery & detective 47 of 62 books
Nero Wolfe (Fictitious character) 47 of 62 books
Wolfe, nero (fictitious character) 47 of 62 books
New York (N.Y.) 31 of 62 books
Fiction in English 10 of 62 books
Fox, tecumseh (fictitious character) 3 of 62 books