4/9/22

Not bad

so far my favorite of the Wolfe books by Hillsborough. didn't seem as forced as the others I read previously ( )

Before this book, I don't think I've ever guessed the identity of the killer before the victim was even murdered. The fact that I was still on the edge of my seat, trying to guess how Nero & Archie would prove it speaks to just how wonderful Robert Goldsborough's Nero Wolfe Mysteries are. ( )

I have, over the past six weeks or so, re-read all the Rex Stout Nero Wolfe books and some of those written by his successor, Robert Goldsborough. Despite his best efforts, Goldsborough doesn’t quite get Stout’s voice. The writing is overall not as tight and Archie Goodwin’s voice isn’t always truly Archie. I’m not sure any author can seamlessly re-create another author’s work, and Rex Stout was a particularly hard act to follow with his IQ of 185
Most of the Goldsborough titles are readable, however, the mystery interesting and well worked out. But this particular Goldsborough title I was not able to re-read, and I’m not sure – memory being a fragile thing – if I managed to read it the first time round. I suspect I didn’t. I certainly don’t remember how it came out. The reason I couldn’t go on with it is because Goldsborough set up Archie in a situation I couldn’t picture him in.
Archie goes out to confront the bad boy, without a plan. Now Archie Goodwin has told us often enough how he figures out what he is going to do before he goes out to see someone, sorting through various scenarios. Then Goldsborough has him acting like a common thug when he tries to take a punch at the bad boy’s mouthy friend and the doorman has to intervene. Archie has to retreat.
Any reader of these books can see what is going to happen next. The bad boy is going to wind up dead and Archie will be the main suspect. Inspector Cramer and Sergeant Purley Stebbins are just waiting for this last coincidence to get Archie and bloody Wolfe's nose.
The other item I had issue with was Archie’s treatment of Fred Durkin, an occasional operative employed by Wolfe and someone Archie has worked with, and played poker with on Thursday nights, through many of the 47 Stout stories. Stout would not have had him behave the way he did here, nor would he have written disparagingly of Fred at such length.
I am going to give Goldsborough a rest now, and keep my memories of Stout’s Wolfe and Archie unsullied.
( )

A young woman, the niece of Archie Goodwin's "special friend" Lily Rowan, turns to Nero and Archie for help when her brother confesses to murdering of the man who sexually assaulted her. Despite his confession, she's convinced he didn't do it, and it doesn't take long to turn up a whole host of people who had motive to do in Sparky Linville. Unfortunately, many of them are also connected to young Noreen; has the young socialite traded her brother's freedom for that of another close relative?

Leave entirely aside for the moment the absurdity of Goldsborough introducing a whole set of relatives for Lily that the original author of this series, Rex Stout, never bothered to mention over the 40-odd years that he wrote it, the existence of whom would have altered entire plot lines of several original books. Goldsborough just can't accurately render the world of Nero and Archie despite what I have no doubt are his most sincere intentions. I've said it before: If Goldsborough had written mysteries with new characters instead of beloved favorites, they would probably get judged more generously by me. But he didn't, so they're not. It's elementary, my dear Watson. ( )