[.ca] Some Buried Caesar (ISBN 0553254642)

Wolfe in the wilds of upstate New York:
If you're interested in an audio edition, the unabridged narration by Michael Pritchard is good. The title is taken from a poem, "The Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam". Some bad blood between Wolfe and another orchid fancier does what no fee could: Wolfe and Archie are on their way to the Exposition at Crowfield, so that Wolfe can exhibit some of his orchids and take prizes away from his rival. But just outside a ranch near Crowfield, one of the tires blows out at 55 MPH, and the car crashes into a tree. (It's worth picking up this book just to watch Wolfe's reaction to this, given his phobia about moving vehicles.) Unfortunately, when they cut across a pasture en route to the house, they don't notice until it's too late (1) the farmhand guarding it with a shotgun, yelling at them to go back, and (2) Hickory Caesar Grindon, the prize bull (worth $45000 in 1936!) inside the pasture. On instructions from Wolfe, Archie gets to clear the fence (luring the bull away) while Wolfe takes up residence on a boulder until he can be rescued. (Do I need to mention that this is worth seeing?) Introducing Lily Rowan, who ever after calls Archie 'Escamillo' after a bullfighter in _Carmen_. At least 5 people have motives to murder her: Clyde Osgood, who ruined himself after taking up with her (she's now dropped him); his father and sister, who blame Lily for Clyde's ruin; his ex-fiancee, Carolyn Pratt; and Carolyn's brother, who's just getting involved with Lily. As it happens, they're all guests or acquaintances of Tom Pratt, who built the ranch on his birthplace after getting rich running a chain of fast-food restaurants. He's throwing a barbecue in a few days, and bought Caesar as a publicity stunt, to serve as the main course. The local cattle ranchers and stock hands think he's committing a monstrous crime against the Guernsey breed, and hold it against Monte McMillan for selling Caesar. (Monte takes umbrage; he doesn't like Caesar's fate, but none of those fine gentlemen offered him anything like a fair price for Caesar. The Depression and an anthrax epidemic in his herd have wiped him out.) So Monte pitches in to help guard Caesar from any possible do-gooders who might try to steal him. (On top of everything, Clyde has bet Tom Pratt $10000 that Caesar won't make it to the barbecue.) Wolfe signs Archie up to help, since the ranch is more comfortable than the hotel in Crowfield. But Caesar isn't the first victim of sudden death. On Archie's watch, a dead man is found in Caesar's pasture, apparently gored by the bull. But Wolfe consoles Archie privately: Wolfe figured out that it was murder, and who, how, and why, before the doctor showed up. He doesn't spill any details, not wanting to be entangled in Crowfield, especially with no fee; but when the victim's family doesn't buy the goring theory, he takes the job. Good stuff: what Wolfe will put up with while in search of a comfy chair; Archie and Wolfe tangling with the local law, who'd love to sweep this case under a rug; the various relationships between the self-made Pratt family and the old-money Osgoods; and the Exposition itself.

Wolfe Stands the Test of Time:
I'm not sure I'd tale the time to sit down to read Stout's old classics, but Michael Prichard's audiobook narration captures both Archie Goodwin and his rotund boss in a way that makes a long summer car trip seem a lot shorter. Tom Pratt, who owns a bunch of fast food restaurants circa 1938, buys Hickory Caesar Grindon, a champion sire of prized Guernsey cows, for $45,000. The Osgoods, Fred and his children Clyde and Nancy, old money riding out the Great Depression on thousands of family owned acres around Crowfield, NY, want to stop the sale to Pratt who intends to barbecue Caesar. Pratt's niece Carolyn tells Archie of a vamp named Lily Rowan, who destroyed Clyde Osgood and has her brother Jimmy in mind for her next conquest. Lily, a precocious presumably promiscuous fixture in future stories, is fascinated by Archie, her "Escamillo" whom she is meeting for the first time. Clyde is found dead in the pasture with Hickory Caesar standing over him. Wolfe's only there because Archie ran his car into a ditch on the way to an orchid exposition, but he decides to stay on to prove the bull didn't kill Clyde. He finds a letter telling of a debt owed to Bronson, a mysterious man of questionable character who came to Crowfield with Clyde. The next day Bronson is found dead in a barn stall with a pitchfork through his chest, a stall Archie was in the day before. Police Captain Barrow believes Archie is holding out, which he is, arrests him as a material witness to murder and throws him in the county jail. A fun sidebar develops when Archie meets Basil, a con man who's mastered a game with three spoons and a pea. Basil shows Archie how to get things done in the lockup, and within a day Archie is organizing the inmates in the Crowfield County Prisoner's Union. Wolfe appears in DA Waddell's office in his "customary unhurried waddle" and browbeats him to release Archie with the notion that he needs him to solve the crimes the DA and Capt. Barrow cannot. They do, of course, and the solution seems so obvious once Wolfe ties together all the facts he saw that others missed. Isn't that what Nero Wolfe is all about?

Some Buried Caesar:
One of Stout's best Wolfe novels. The mystery itself is not really entirely gratifying, but the story and the characters that inhabit the mystery make it all worthwhile. The conflicts and dialogue of the characters add to the realism of the novel as well. One of Stout's most accomplished novels.

One of the best Nero Wolfe novels ever...:
This is a great book for beginners. In the FIRST chapter not only has Nero Wolfe broken many of his own rules, but Archie Goodwin also meets Lily Rowan for the first time. It has both a great plot, with lots of characters (including a bull named Caesar)and just as much humor.

A Piercing Mystery--And That's No Bull:
Tom Pratt, the nouveau riche owner of a chain of cheap eateries, buys a champion bull for $45,000.00 and announces his intention to barbecue it for 100 hand-picked guests. The Guernsey League is scandalized and tries to buy the bull back, but Pratt is obdurate. Nero Wolfe and his confidential assistant Archie Goodwin, on their way to an orchid show, crash (literally) the party in time to witness an idiotic bet made between Pratt and Clyde Osgood, the eldest son of Pratt's longtime rival. Soon thereafter, Archie is set to guard the bull against mischief. The bull isn't harmed under Archie's watchful eye, but he becomes distracted by the beautiful Lily Rowan and the next thing he knows, he finds the bull, with bloody horns, worrying Clyde Osgood's gored-to-death body. Wolfe gets hired to investigate the death, anthrax breaks out, a guest of Osgood's gets pitchforked, Archie gets arrested on suspicion of murder, and Wolfe (who solved the murder before anyone else knew it was a murder) slothfully allows all his evidence to go up in smoke. Funny and fast-paced, this story is the closest thing to a fair-play mystery that I have ever read in the Nero Wolfe corpus. If you grew up on a farm as I did, you stand a fair chance of figuring out who done it and how done it before Wolfe wins first place at the orchid show and eats his last fricassee at the Methodist women's food concession. The real trick in this one is how to prove it. Wolfe shakes off his indolence, springs Archie from jail, and engineers an elaborate caper designed to bring the killer to justice.