Customer Reviews

Some Buried Caesar (Nero Wolfe)

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Rex Stout's sixth Nero Wolfe novel "Some Buried Caesar" is considered by many fans and critics to be the first great offering in the series. Wolfe, on his way to an orchid competition in upstate New York, takes an unexpected stop when Archie crashes the car in the middle of nowhere. While stranded, Wolfe and Archie encounter a prize-winning bull worth $45,000, a wise-cracking female named Lily Rowan, and of course, murder.

Like the previous Wolfe outing "Too Many Cooks," Stout places the heavyset detective out of his element, and the results are wildly entertaining. Among the highlights: Wolfe drinking warm beer (Horrors!), Archie in jail for the first time, and many unsavory characters. With this novel, Stout really has a good grip on his characters and how they behave. Great fun!

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?

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.

In this novel Wolfe finds himself in quite a different world than his familiar brownstone. The portly detective who never leaves home finds himself stranded far from home -- a bit like the situation in Too Many Cooks.

Characterization seems to shine in this early Wolfe novel. Archie does indeed meet Lily Rowan for the first time, as another reviewer points out. The repartee between these two is delightful, and provides an interesting love interest. Wolfe -- perhaps destabilized by being "stuck" in an unfamiliar setting -- is at his most autocratic, eccentric, and unpredictable.

This very early Wolfe novel, first published in 1938, has some of the freshness of other early Wolfe novels. It was written when the character of Wolfe was still rather new to Rex Stout. It centers around a most peculiar crime. I'll avoid describing that to keep the reading experience fresh for the reader. Suffice to say, it is very difficult through the first third of this novel to convince the District Attorney that a crime has even been committed!

Given the excellence of Rex Stout's Nero Wolfe novels, I'm only surprised that so few are currently in print. This book-- if it can be obtained-- is a good one to put on your permanent shelves.

This is a great example of why this series is so enjoyable. Nero Wolfe proven right about automobiles, Wolfe trapped in a pasture by a bull, (Threatened by food, how appropriate.) Archie meets the one woman who sticks around (Lily Rowan) and a mystery that only gets solved with one of Wolfe's outrageous, but plausible (well, almost plausible) schemes. All the usual pleasures are just a bit better in this one, Archie gets arrested (as per usual) but instead of just suffering comically, he decides to organize the inmates. The banter between Goodwin and Rowan is another highlight (You'll see why Stout kept her around) and the twists and turns all have purpose. This one is one of the true classics of the series.

And it's not Hickory Caesar Grindon, the bull, either. This early Wolfe introduces Archie to his lifelong companion Lily Rowan.

Lily sticks with Archie (God knows why) for the rest of the series, which means from 1939 to 1975.

Some would say that Archie should be ashamed that he never makes an honest woman of Lily - I mean, isn't 36 years long enough? But that shows that they've not understood Lily - or Archie, for that matter.

Lily is a classic proto-feminist. She is independent and wilful. SHe thinks and acts for herself. Marriage, as she would define it, poses unacceptable terms to her: having to conform her actions to the expectations of someone else.

A great pleasure was seeing Kari Matchett play Lily in the much-lamented A&E series on Nero Wolfe. She was perfect: beautiful, self assured, charming and very much her own woman.

Oh, the story: a prize bull is killed and so is another person associated therewith...Wolfe, already grossly inconvenienced and in a highly uncomfortable place, must unravel this to assure that Archie does not languish in a provincial prison.

And, of course, a relationship begins which lasts a lifetime. The language and the characters in this story are irresistable, and Michael Prichard does his usual, wonderful job in capturing the spirit of Rex Stout's writing.

It's a story that stands up to multiple listenings. Enjoy!

I sometimes think that never so red
the Rose as where some buried Caesar bled
- "The Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam"

If you're interested in an audio edition, the unabridged narration by Michael Pritchard is good.

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.

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.

Some Buried Caesar begins with an auto accident as Archie Goodwin is driving Nero Wolfe to an orchid exhibition. Wolfe, in his own considerate way, loses no opportunity to tell everyone he meets that Archie has wrecked his car. While this definitely helps fuel some of the comedy in the book, it's not quite the central plot thread. It turns out that Wolfe and company get sucked into a murder investigation where the prime suspect is a prize bull. Wolfe knows that the bull is innocent but has to prove it to the police to earn his fee. There is plenty of enjoyable snappy patter and the story moves along at a nice brisk pace. Archie also picks up something of a girlfriend, Lily Rowan, who will be around off and on for the rest of the series.

Most Wolfe novels have him safely at home in the city but this one pulls him out of his cozy confines and this definitely helps add spice to the story. Speaking of the story, it's one of Rex Stout's best. The characters are varied and interesting and the murder mystery is just as baffling as you could hope for. Some of the dialogue is laugh-out-loud funny, just as you would expect from Wolfe and Goodwin.

If you've never read a Nero Wolfe book, this one would make a great introduction to the series. If you have read some of the novels, this one is well worth adding to your collection. In short, I would recommend it without reserve to almost anyone.

This is one of my favorite Nero Wolfe novels. I think my mouth may have fallen open in surprise as I read it. Not only does Nero Wolfe leave his secure brownstone (to attend an orchid show), but -- horrors! -- Archie drives their car into a tree. They seek help from a nearby farm, but in crossing the pasture to get to the farmhouse, they're charged by a bull. Caesar by name, $45,000 of beef on the hoof. The scene in which Wolfe scrambles to safety atop a rock is hilarious.

As it turns out, the bull is owned by Thomas Pratt, who intends to slaughter and barbecue Ceaser in order to publicize his (Pratt's) chain of restaurants. This publicly declared announcement by Pratt sets off a series of murders, the first of which is attributed to . . . Caesar. A great read. Highly recommended!