The Missing Chapter: A Nero Wolfe Mystery - Hardcover

Goldsborough, Robert

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0553072412 ISBN 13: 9780553072419

Publisher: Bantam Dell Pub Group, 1994

Synopsis

Robert Goldsborough returns with his seventh stunning Nero Wolfe novel. Follow along into Wolfe's famed West Thirty-fifth Street brownstone, where the corpulent orchid-tending genius devours meals, books, and murderers with a passion - and where this time he gets the chance to send a writer's killer to the pen.
Charles Childress, the author tapped to continue the beloved Sergeant Barnstable detective stories when the originator died, may not have been the most gifted writer in the world, but he did have his talents...Contentious, combative, and exceedingly vengeful, Childress had an unsurpassed way of making enemies. Which is why, when the police write off his death as suicide, his publisher, Horace Vinson, comes to Nero Wolfe. Vinson knows all too well that in the cutthroat world of publishing, the competition can be murder.
Wolfe, however; is not so easily convinced...or distracted from his more genteel pursuits. After all, the evidence does conform to the official version of the killing: The gun found at the crime scene not only belonged to the victim but bore only his fingerprints. Perhaps Childress finally contrived a successful climax...as the author of his own death.
But Archie Goodwin, Wolfe's ever-faithful friend and partner; points out that Vinson's fee would keep the big man in beer and bouillabaisse for some time to come. That is a reality Nero Wolfe can't refuse, and soon Archie is posing questions that turn up a whole cast of character assassins, including Childress's ex-editor and agent, his most scathing critic, and his icily beautiful, ambitious fiancee - each of whom would have taken great pleasure in writing the final chapter in the life of Charles Childress.
And then, in a plot twist any auteur would envy, Archie gets wind of the involvement of a mysterious kissing cousin from Childress's past. Could this be a case of a small-town girl come to right an old wrong? It's a conundrum so novel even the reluctant Nero Wolfe can't resist...as extortion, deceit, and jealousy come together in a perfect potboiler of revenge - and murder.

About this title

Review:

“Likely to satisfy the old Rex Stout faithful.” —Publishers Weekly “A very clever mystery.” —Booklist “Goldsborough does a masterly job with the Wolfe legacy.” —Booklist

About the Author:

Robert Goldsborough (b. 1937) is an American author best known for continuing Rex Stout’s famous Nero Wolfe series. Born in Chicago, he attended Northwestern University and upon graduation went to work for the Associated Press, beginning a lifelong career in journalism that would include long periods at the Chicago Tribune and Advertising Age.
While at the Tribune, Goldsborough began writing mysteries in the voice of Rex Stout, the creator of iconic sleuths Nero Wolfe and Archie Goodwin. Goldsborough’s first novel starring Wolfe, Murder in E Minor (1986), was met with acclaim from both critics and devoted fans, winning a Nero Award from the Wolfe Pack. Nine more Wolfe mysteries followed, including Death on Deadline (1987) and Fade to Black (1990). Stop the Presses! (2016) is his most recent novel.  

About this edition

• Publisher: Bantam Dell Pub Group
• Publication date: 1994
• ISBN 10: 0553072412
• ISBN 13: 9780553072419
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1