This is the third Nero Wolfe mystery of Goldsborough that I've read, and I've enjoyed all of them. The author is very careful in his research of the RThis is the third Nero Wolfe mystery of Goldsborough that I've read, and I've enjoyed all of them. The author is very careful in his research of the Rex Stout created characters and so they ring true and seem natural.
The story involves the murder of the conductor of the New York Symphony and the framing of a section violinist who is in love with the conductor's young niece. Goldsborough also did his research with professional orchestras, their personnel, management, and repertoire. It was very refreshing for an author to care for his craft so much that he would correctly handle all the intricacies.
The "hook" for Wolfe is that the conductor was a former Montenegran revolutionary comrade ...more
Goldsborough compiles a very interesting and plausible prequel to Rex Stout's Nero Wolfe/Archie Goodwin mystery series. The author employs nearly all Goldsborough compiles a very interesting and plausible prequel to Rex Stout's Nero Wolfe/Archie Goodwin mystery series. The author employs nearly all of the familiar Stout characters from Fretz Brenner to Purlie Stebbins as ways to introduce Archie to them. Goldsborough also weaves little details of Archie's life from Stout's books into this narrative.
In this story nineteen year old Archie Goodwin travels to New York from his boyhood home of Chillicothe, Ohio in the early 1930s presumably sometime following the inauguration of FDR. He first finds work as a night watchman on the Hudson River docks, but loses his job when he shoots two robbers. His next semi-stable position is for the Del Bascom Detective Agency. It is through a free lance job for Nero Wolfe that Archie meets the foremost detective of his day.
Wolfe has been hired by a hotel magnate to rescue his kidnapped son. Wolfe hires several independent detectives to help him solve the case and recover the boy. Among the detectives are Saul Panzer, Orrie Cather, Fred Durkin, and of course, Del Bascom and Archie Goodwin.
I found the novel to be a quick and interesting read, very much in keeping with early Nero Wolfe books.
Loading...
