Golden Age of Detective Fiction

Archie Goodwin and Saul Panzer have traveled to the Polo Grounds to watch the Giants face off against the Dodgers. As the national anthem concludes, Panzer notices state senator Orson Milbank in box seats not far from where he and Panzer are seated. In the fourth inning, a robust line drive electrifies the crowd—everyone stands except for the silver-haired senator, whom a sniper from the upper deck has fatally shot.

Archie’s employer, the rotund genius Nero Wolfe, shows no interest in investigating the murder at the stadium. However, Archie is persuaded by the senator’s strikingly beautiful widow and is intrigued by the power-hungry staffer who is having a blatant affair with the Senator. With Orson Millbank being deeply entangled in corruption and the center of a public affair, uncovering his killer will be far more arduous than enjoying a day at the ballpark.

The Review

Murder in the Ball Park was a bit of a letdown and my least favorite Nero Wolfe story to date. The back blurb promises baseball, political corruption, and seedy affairs—which, to be fair, are all present in the story—but they are quickly eschewed for Goldsborough’s thinly veiled treatise on America’s treatment of war veterans, especially veterans with disabilities and mental health issues caused by war.

Goldsborough’s message—ostensibly about World War Two—definitely feels more like a veneered portent on the Vietnam War and the mistreatment of veterans back on American soil. I think this story could have been told inside a Nero Wolfe story, given Nero’s resistance fighting and antipathy towards governments enlisting their governments into the machinery of war, but that story was not the promise of this book and it takes a hard left turn to shoehorn in the message. In fact, it felt like Goldsbourogh wanted to get through the silly baseball mystery as quickly as possible so he could write his story about veterans.

Murder in the Ball Park promises a murder during a baseball game and that is what happens- a senator is shot at a baseball game, which is described with remarkable energy- like an announcer at a real game. However, after the shooting, we leave the baseball grounds never to return. It was just a set piece and not where the action of the story occurs. It’s not a baseball story; it’s a story where a baseball game is played. 

This bait and switch is a shame because baseball is an ingrained national pastime in American culture. Sports mysteries are an oft-ignored subgenre, in which I think Goldsbourough’s story could have excelled. He could have given one of the players or managers the same backstory as the sniper and kept the story inside the baseball world, grounding it and giving it a fantastic setting.

However, once we leave the baseball field, Archie, without the support of Nero Wolfe, starts investigating the senator’s affair with his closest staffer. This affair is too blatant and out in the open. It’s an open “secret”. The staffer’s husband knows about the affair and has come to blows about it with the senator and his wife on multiple occasions. Archie doesn’t have to discover the affair; he merely has to ascertain whether the husband is violent enough to kill the senator or hire someone to do it. Instead, it takes the wind out of the sails of the story. He is such an obvious suspect that Goldsborough painted a big red target on his back.

The senator’s life is rather extensively autopsied and while accusations of corruption swirl- his actual involvement in corruption and the evidence that he’s involved with mobsters is such a blatant misdirection that I never really got into this whole part of the story.

The cluing in Murder in the Ball Park is so god awfully blatant and clumsy that I and several other readers know that the victim of the shooting was not the intended victim because Goldsbourough badly laid the motive. Then we have to sit through 40.000 words before Nero Wolfe reveals the killer to an audience who figured it out ages ago.

Nero Wolfe is a background character in Murder in the Ball Park. He adds a bit of set dressing: yelling “Archie,” tending to his orchids and drinking beer. The case is so simple that I genuinely believe it could have been solved by good police work or even Archie Goodwin. It’s not up to the caliber of impossible crimes solved by Nero Wolfe and I can see why he didn’t want to get involved. The case was beneath him.

Murder in the Ball Park is an uninteresting and straightforward mystery that missed the mark for me.

Nero Wolfe Mystery Reviews

#1: Fer-De-Lance by Rex Stout (1934)

#7: Over My Dead Body by Rex Stout (1940)

New Nero Wolfe Mystery Reviews

#1: Murder in E Minor by Robert Goldsborough (2012)

Robert Goldsborough Biography

Robert Goldsborough is an American author best known for his contributions to the Nero Wolfe mystery series, originally created by Rex Stout. Born in Chicago, Illinois, Goldsborough developed a passion for writing and mystery fiction early in life. He pursued a career in journalism, working for the Chicago Tribune, where he honed his writing skills and nurtured his love for storytelling.

In the 1980s, following the death of Rex Stout, Goldsborough was approached by Stout’s estate to continue the Nero Wolfe series. He accepted the challenge and successfully revived the beloved detective character, capturing the essence of Stout’s original style. Goldsborough’s first Nero Wolfe novel, Murder in E Minor, was published in 1986 to positive reviews from fans and critics alike. He has since written numerous additional Nero Wolfe novels, maintaining the series’ popularity.

Beyond his work on Nero Wolfe, Goldsborough has written other mystery novels and short stories, showcasing his talent for crafting engaging and intricate plots. His contributions to the mystery genre have earned him a dedicated readership and respect within the literary community.