Introduction

I came in ignorance. But found a good book anyway. In fact, I found what seems to be a good series. Let me explain.

Murder in the Ball Park

I had heard of Nero Wolfe. I never read any of the books. There have been a couple TV series but I don’t think I saw any shows. So when I saw Murder in the Ball Park (A Nero Wolfe Mystery) on netgalley, I thought it was an old book of the Nero Wolfe series which I thought meant that it was written decades ago, went out of print and was being re-issued as an e-book.

I enjoyed the story and didn’t realize until I read the author’s notes at the end of the book that this was an entirely new work by an author who was writing in the style of the original series.

The ballpark is the Polo Grounds in New York City. For those too young to remember the Polo Grounds, it was the home of the New York Giants before they became the San Francisco Giants. Later, the Polo Grounds also hosted the Mets when they were a new team. The book takes place several years after WW2 and before the Giants moved to the West Coast.

The book gets your attention early when a state senator is murdered during a ball game. There are several suspects and the police are not progressing fast enough for the widow so she hires private investigator Nero Wolfe.

Nero Wolfe is known for getting results but has an unusual way of working. He never leaves his house (which is a very nice house) but has others do the investigating and bring him the results. He sifts through the results, directs his investigator or investigators in gathering more information, and finds the solution.

In this book, he uses Archie Goodwin to do the investigating and I understood that was now how he usually worked. I enjoyed this book and was curious as to how Archie and Nero came to work together in a most unusual pairing.

Archie Meets Nero Wolfe: A Prequel to Rex Stout’s Nero Wolfe Mysteries

I did a little investigating of my own and discovered that a few months ago Robert Goldsborough had published a prequel to the Nero Wolfe series explaining just that in another mystery. So I paid my money and downloaded it to my Kindle.

The prequel was a good as the mystery I had just read. The story draws Archie into a case being investigated by Nero Wolfe. It takes place considerably before the Ball Park Murder above, so in a much older New York City.

I should not say too much as I think that would spoil the pleasure of the book.

Recommendation

Both books are written as if the story was told at the time it happened. This gives them a certain atmosphere. By the standards of modern thriller-type mysteries the action may seem a bit slow. But the slower pace is one reason I think these books work so well.

Murder in the Ball Park will be released on January 28, 2014. Archie Meets Nero Wolfe: A Prequel to Rex Stout’s Nero Wolfe Mysteries is already available in Kindle and paper formats.

There are plenty of reviews on Amazon that suggest Robert Goldsborough has done an excellent job in continuing Rex Stout’s Nero Wolfe series although there are a few negative comments.

As for me, I plan on finding a few of Rex Stout’s originals and making up my own mind.

I enjoyed both books and hope you will too.