Stop the Presses!

Starred review from January 4, 2016
Goldsborough’s outstanding 11th Nero Wolfe pastiche provides a sedate contrast to the previous volume, 2015’s Archie in the Crosshairs, which opened with a bang, as someone shot at Archie Goodwin, Wolfe’s leg man, on his way home. Lon Cohen of the New York Gazette asks for Wolfe’s help after his paper’s most-read and most-notorious writer, Cameron Clay, receives death threats. Since Clay’s column routinely ruffles feathers, that’s not an unusual occurrence, but the writer views the current threats as more serious. Wolfe agrees to meet with Clay and gets a list of the five people most likely to pose a danger to him, including a real estate magnate and Clay’s diva ex-wife. But after the columnist rejects protection, he’s found dead of a gunshot wound, and the Gazette’s publisher asks Wolfe to challenge the police’s verdict of suicide. Offering one of his most surprising solutions, Goldsborough again demonstrates an impressive ability to emulate Rex Stout’s narrative voice. Agent: Erik Simon, Martha Kaplan Agency.