Robert Goldsborough

There are few people Nero Wolfe respects, and Lon Cohen of the New York Gazette is one of them. So when Cohen asks for a favor, the famously brilliant-and notoriously lazy-detective is inclined to listen. According to Cohen, someone wants to kill the Gazette's gossip columnist, Cameron Clay. Death threats are a regular hazard for Clay, who's hurled insults and accusations at every bold-faced name in the five boroughs. But the latest threats have carried...

No matter how fabulously he's being courted, infamously dour "art hog" Arthur Wordell isn't keen on favoring the new Guggenheim Museum with his extensive collection. Even at the urging of his beloved daughter, Nadia. Then, the night after the museum's fête, Arthur takes a twenty-story plunge from the window of his Times Square office. Nadia thinks it's no mere coincidence. Eccentric, yes. Suicidal, no. Private investigator Nero Wolfe and his assistant,...

"When wealthy and popular crusader and reformer Lester Pierce is gunned down in front of his Park Avenue residence, the public outcry forces the NYPD to restructure its homicide department. As the deceased was highly critical of Inspector Lionel Cramer, the longtime head of homicide is temporarily relieved of his badge. But it seems Cramer was not just a scapegoat: He was seen dining in Little Italy with mob kingpin Ralph Mars ... Despite the burgeoning...

Archie Goodwin is not overly fond of Theodore Horstmann, who takes care of the orchids on the rooftop of Nero Wolfe's West Thirty-Fifth Street brownstone. But as loyal assistant to the legendary private detective, Archie will put his animosity aside when the surly orchid-keeper stumbles through the front door beaten within an inch of his life. While the gardener lies in a coma, Nero sends Archie to poke around his apartment near the river. The place...

Staten Island would be forgettable were it not for the gleaming Tabernacle of the Silver Spire, where thousands of congregants come every Sunday to hear the sermons of Barnabas Bay. Millions more tune in on television, giving the good Reverend international fame, and a chance to spread the gospel from New York City's harbor all the way to South Korea. But threatening notes have been appearing in the collection bag, suggesting that one of the faithful...

"Archie Goodwin's aunt Edna is about to lure him away from his work at Nero Wolfe's New York brownstone. After a phone call, he heads off to Ohio, where the president of Farmer's State Bank and Trust, an elderly widower, has died in an apparent suicide. But Archie's aunt has expressed nagging suspicions--which only grow stronger when someone takes a shot at a local reporter who wrote about the case. It wouldn't be a small town without some gossip,...