DEATH OF AN ART COLLECTOR
A Nero Wolfe Mystery
By Robert Goldsborough
Mysterious Press
221 pgs
We’ve made no secret that we greatly enjoy Robert Goldsborough’s new Nero Wolfe mysteries. He handles all the familiar trappings from the rotund detective’s love of Remmers beer and his thousand of orchids to his witty battering with his dapper legman, Archie Goodwin perfectly.
In this outing, Wolfe is faced with one of his most challenging puzzles. Noted art collector, Arthur Wordell, a rough-hewn character, enjoys sitting on the narrow windowsill of his office located on the twentieth floor. He tells one and all he enjoys the view of downtown from that perch. Of course, when his body is found splattered over the sidewalk one morning, the police, and many others, assume Wordell’s luck ran out and he slipped and fell to his death. Or maybe he committed suicide to end it all.
Whereas his daughter Nadia believes the irascible Wordell was pushed and thus hires Nero Wolfe to find her father’s killer. At this point we are on familiar ground as Archie begins inviting those closest to Wordell to visit their brownstone abode and meet with his boss. One by one, Wolfe confronts the suspects and Goldsborough shines making the repetitive narrative lively with his talent for capturing a character’s personality in very few words. Ultimately all suspects have been met and interviewed and it is time for Wolfe to reveal the killer.
But can he? We have no intention of spoiling what is easily one of the most original climaxes in any Wolfe book ever. What we will say is, like Archie and Wolfe, we never saw it coming. That alone makes “Death of an Art Collector” one of the most memorable cases in the series to date and one you will not want to miss.
