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Rating: 
Summary: Nero Wolfe takes on Academia
Review: A rather simplistic mystery from Goldsborough, who attempted to continue the Nero Wolfe series. A Rush Limbaugh-like professor is murdered on the campus of a fictional Ivy League campus. While the characterizations of the leads was solid, the mystery itself had a very weak conclusion and left this reader feeling less than satisfied.
Rating: 
Summary: Just how vicious *are* academic politics?
Review: Hale Markham, a 73-year-old right-wing conservative in a left-leaning political science department, was a big fish in the pond of Prescott University - a small school with Ivy League pretensions. Upon hearing of Markham's fatal fall into a ravine, and having read his book _Bleeding Hearts Can Kill_, Wolfe observes, "The man was a political Neanderthal. He would have been supremely happy in the court of Louis XIV." The professor's name would never have been uttered in the brownstone again, except that Markham's executor and colleague, Walter Willis Cortland, manages to talk Archie into granting an audience - he believes Markham was murdered. (He has enough family money to afford the fee, although his wages as a professor wouldn't cover it.)Markham, despite his age, was very sure-footed; he'd even climbed in the Alps. He was widowed, after a happy marriage Cortland envied, and a thorn in the flesh of many. His celebrity eclipsed that of the university's president, Keith Potter, let alone Orville Schmidt, his department chair. Worse - Leander Bach wouldn't donate any of his fortune to the university while Markham was there. Satirizing Schmidt's last book in one of his own papers didn't help either. Markham also had a reputation as a ladies' man, although digging out suspects in that area takes more work. Motive is cheap - including Cortland's, although his is to smear academic rivals with suspicion, rather than murder itself. He has no proof that the death wasn't an accident. Cortland's inaugural visit to the brownstone soaks up 3 of 24 chapters. He speaks to show off his vocabulary rather than to communicate, in a *very* unrealistic manner, and fidgets far too much. (The character has been designed to annoy, giving Wolfe an opportunity for wit at his expense later on, and succeeds all too well.) Archie persuades Wolfe to meet with Cortland, and even goes so far as to drive to Prescott on his own time to check whether Cortland's on the level. (It's out of Cramer's jurisdiction, and isn't even in Westchester, so the police characters involved are new.) Archie's first visit isn't a total loss. Gretchen Frazier, shining star of the political science graduate students, is very easy on the eyes - and was a devotee of Markham. (In real life, Cortland wouldn't be so casual about implying that she flirted with her thesis advisor as he is herein.) Archie's attempt at a low-profile reconnaissance isn't entirely successful. Elena Moreau, history professor and possible inamorata of the deceased, knows him by sight; she says the deceased was subject to occasional fainting spells. But Archie's examination of the scene leads him to confirm Cortland's suspicions - see if you can figure out why, before Archie reports back to Wolfe. Wolfe holds back from committing himself, however - until the Prescott cops arrest Archie during his search of Markham's house. :) As always, the brownstone is in the world contemporary with the time of its writing, although not completely of it. Archie has persuaded Wolfe to replace the old typewriter with a PC and dot matrix printer, which from this point on in Goldsborough's books receives some play as another tool in Archie's kit. (Wolfe won't touch it, of course). In sum: an entertaining story, if one can stay the course past the initial interview with Wolfe's client.
Rating:
Summary: Not Half Bad
Review: The characterizations in this novel are rather good. The plot is not as strong as those in the Rex Stout Archie Goodwin books, but it is better than the average mystery. If you find one, buy it, but don't take extraordinary measures.
Rating:
Summary: Not Half Bad
Review: The characterizations in this novel are rather good. The plot is not as strong as those in the Rex Stout Archie Goodwin books, but it is better than the average mystery. If you find one, buy it, but don't take extraordinary measures.
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