Murder in the Ball Park Author: Visit Amazon's Robert Goldsborough Page | Language: English | ISBN:
1480445657 | Format: PDF
Murder in the Ball Park Description
From Booklist
Archie Goodwin and his favorite private operative, Saul Panzer, decide to take in a ball game at the Polo Grounds a few years after the end of WWII. The game is forgotten when a sniper’s bullet takes out state senator Orson Milbank , the originator of legislation creating a roadway from New York City into some nearby rural counties. Environmental groups are opposed, as is a mobster with bloody hands. Was Millbanks killing political, or did his womanizing catch up with him? The police get nowhere, and eventually a reluctant Nero Wolfe agrees to take the case. Per usual, Archie does the legwork, while Wolfe ruminates and tends to his orchids. Ah, life in the famous brownstone, where Wolfe eventually gathers the principals and reveals the killer in his usual genteel fashion. Goldsborough has been engaged by the Rex Stout estate for nearly 30 years to keep Archie and Wolfe on the case. His plotting is excellent, the red herrings clever, and the Wolfeian eccentricities comforting. Very enjoyable. --Wes Lukowsky
Review
“Devotees of the late Rex Stout’s bestsellers will be pleasantly surprised.” —Publishers Weekly
“Robert Goldsborough brings Nero Wolfe, late of Rex Stout, gloriously back to life.” —Chicago
“Mr. Goldsborough has all of the late writer’s stylistic mannerisms down pat.” —The New York Times
“Superb.” —Publishers Weekly, starred review
<DIV><DIV>“Devotees of the late Rex Stout’s bestsellers will be pleasantly surprised.” —<i>Publishers Weekly</i></div><DIV><BR>“Robert Goldsborough brings Nero Wolfe, late of Rex Stout, gloriously back to life.” —<i>Chicago</i> <BR><BR>“Mr. Goldsborough has all of the late writer’s stylistic mannerisms down pat.” —<i>The New York Times</i><BR><BR>“Superb.” —<i>Publishers Weekly</i>, starred review</div></div>
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- Series: The Nero Wolfe Myste
- Paperback: 193 pages
- Publisher: MysteriousPress.com/Open Road (January 28, 2014)
- Language: English
- ISBN-10: 1480445657
- ISBN-13: 978-1480445659
- Product Dimensions: 8 x 5.8 x 0.6 inches
- Shipping Weight: 8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
I'm sure Robert Goldsborough is a nice man and he's nobly tried to carry on the Nero Wolfe stories. I bare him no animus.
That said, this is the worst mystery novel I've read in my life. It's a bad novel as a Nero Wolfe book, and it's a horrible mystery.
It begins on the cover. The cover trim is nice (only one of two good things I can say about the book), but the picture looks like a cheap public domain picture and I'm not sure what era it's from.
This was important, as I was thrown by the timing of the novel. Goldsborough previous run of Wolfe novels updated Wolfe to the late 1980s and early '90s. His most recent, Archie Meets Nero Wolfe: A Prequel to Rex Stout's Nero Wolfe Mysterieswas set in the 1920s when Archie first met Nero Wolfe. This one was set in the 1950s for some reason.
However, since that wasn't clear from the get go, I didn't think at the time that it was odd for Archie to be asking and receive an info dump from Saul Panzer. However, given that this is the same Archie Goodwin who reads both the Gazette and Times every day, having Saul suddenly give all the back story on a prominent State Senator for Archie's benefit was stupid.
Archie and Panzer are in the park and they see the selfsame Senator murdered in the state and make a bee-line for the exit. The fact that they were at the stadium to see the murder doesn't serve any purpose for the plot, and nearly all the information that Saul Panzer dumped in Chapter 1 for some reason is later repeated by other characters throughout the book meaning the entire first Chapter was completely pointless.
From Chapters 2-26, there are key two points to address:
First of all, Archie Goodwin as written by Rex Stout is one of the most fun to read narrators in any language.
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