I think it appropriate to begin the review of a mystery with another mystery. Robert Goldsborough has done it again. Well, what has he done?

Robert Goldsborough is writing new Nero Wolfe mysteries in the style of the originals by Rex Stout. The two I have read before are very good . (See 2 Nero Wolfe Mysteries by Robert Goldsborough). I just finished another titled Archie in the Crosshairs and it was also quite good.

I think what makes these books so enjoyable is the interplay between Nero Wolfe and Archie Goodwin and then the interaction of each of these with the other characters in the books.

For those unfamiliar with the Nero Wolfe stories, Nero Wolfe is a private detective in New York City. Wolfe is obese, lazy, almost never leaves home, and spends much of his day caring for his orchids. Hardly the type most of us would think of a good detective material. But he is a genius at solving crime. Archie Goodwin is his assistant and a detective who does the leg-work and explains what he has observed to Nero Wolfe who uses his powerful reasoning to solve the crime. The pair solve mysterious crimes that either stump the police or involve individuals who rather not get the police involved.

Reading a sample of Amazon comments on books in Robert Goldsborough’s continuation of Rex Stout’s Nero Wolfe series is interesting. It appears to me that many of the commenters are big fans of the original series and for the most part approve of the continuation series, although there seems to be a number of comments indicating some of the early books in the continuation fall short of Stout’s style.

As for me, I hadn’t read any of Stout’s stories before reading Goldsborough’s stories. Now that I’ve read three of Goldsborough’s stories but only one Stout original, it seems I prefer the Goldsborough stories. But that could just be a function of my small sample. But try both and see for yourself.