Some Buried Caesar

It's the late 1930s and the normally agoraphobic Wolfe has ventured out of his beloved New York City brownstone to upstate New York, where a feud with a fellow amateur orchid grower has provoked him to exhibit his prized albino hybrids at a county agricultural exhibition. He's not looking for work, but when the scion of the local gentry is found dead in the pasture where a grand champion bull is penned, Wolfe finds himself trading his sleuthing skills for the opportunity to avoid an uncomfortable, dirty hotel room. Or, as Archie puts it, "this case you've dragged us into through your absolute frenzy to find an adequate chair to sit on."

Some Buried Caesar is one of the earliest Wolfe novels, but already all the essential elements are in show more place: Wolfe's reluctance to leave home, his extreme dislike of riding in a car (see the quote below), the rat-a-tat-tat banter between he and Archie, his ability to solve mysteries well before anyone else. Caesar is also notable for being the book in which Archie first meets Lily Rowan, the ultra-rich New York socialite who becomes his steady companion and partner in witty banter throughout the series.

The setting outside of New York City and the brownstone means Caesar can't truly be considered an archetype of the series, but in every other element it is a more than worthy entry in the canon of Wolfe and Archie.

Choice Quote: "I presume you know, since I've told you, that my distrust and hatred of vehicles in motion is partly based on my plerophory that their apparent submission to control is illusory and that they may act at their pleasure, and soon or later will, act on whim. Very well, this one has, and we are intact. Thank God the whim was not a deadlier one." show less

A favorite of Nero Wolfe fans, and I can see why. Ace assistant Archie Goodwin is driving Wolfe and his precious orchids to an orchid competition (!), but a tire blows and they skid into a tree. When they cross a fenced-in pasture to get some help, an angry bull goes after them, leaving Wolfe atop a rock and Archie vaulting the fence. Turns out farm owner Tom Pratt has bought the championship bull to barbecue and eat him with friends, as a publicity stunt for his "pratteria" restaurant chain. Locals are peeved, and while Wolfe and Goodwin are recuperating, a neighbor is killed, apparently by the bull, who is found shoving the body around the pasture. Wolfe thinks it's murder, and soon gets himself hired to find out. The sharply show more portrayed, feisty characters and the twisty solution make for fine reading. Part of the fun is having the renowned armchair detective out amongst the populace. I hadn't really been satisfied reading in this series until this one. If you haven't read Stout, or have but not this one, go on and treat yourself.

Fer de Lance starts the series, if you want to get grounded first. show less

Some Buried Caesar is the 6th book in the Nero Wolfe series by Rex Stout. The book opens with Archie and Nero on a road trip to upstate New York where Nero is going to show some of his prize albino orchids at the North Atlantic Exposition. A blown tire causes the car to leave the road and Archie and Nero take shelter at the nearest house. This house is owned by a restaurateur and Archie and Nero become involved in his plans to barbeque a prize bull as a publicity stunt. Things go awry when this prize bull, Hickory Caesar Grindon, is discovered to be mauling a dead body and Nero appears to be the only one who suspects the bull had nothing to do with the death.

I really enjoyed Some Buried Caesar. Nero is out of his comfort zone and show more Archie’s facing some difficulties of his own. Although the mystery has it’s own twists and merits, for me, it was learning a little about Nero Wolfe’s background that was the highlight of the story. While I did miss some of the regular characters, the author wisely introduced some new ones that are intriguing.

I am slowly working my way through the Nero Wolfe series and find them clever and amusing. The verbal sparring between Nero and Archie, the eccentricity of Wolfe and my love of sarcastic and irreverent Archie have totally hooked me to this series. show less

It takes a lot to get Nero Wolfe to leave his New York brownstone apartment. As a self proclaimed recluse, food and flowers are his favorite indoor pastimes. He can devote a lot of time and attention to both without ever having to leave home. In Some Buried Caesar it is the chance to showcase his prize albino orchids at an update New York exhibition that draws Wolfe and his sidekick, Archie Goodwin, out of the apartment and out of the city. However, a blown tire and subsequent tangle with a tree leave Wolfe and Goodwin stranded at the Pratt home. Since the Pratts own a farm out in the country, Wolfe and Goodwin are captive guests while the car is being repaired. Once settled at the house they learn their host, Tom Pratt, has an show more interesting stunt to promote his chain of restaurants. He plans to cook and serve a prized bull as the very expensive main attraction at a barbeque. Eating a bull named Hickory Caesar Grindson was never on Wolfe's agenda. Murder was not on his mind as he waited for his car to be fixed, either. All he wanted was to show his orchids and go home. But when Hickory Caesar Grindson gores a rival neighbor to death, Wolfe knows there is a case to be solved. show less

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Title: Some Buried Caesar
Series: Nero Wolfe #6
Author: Rex Stout
Rating: 4.5 of 5 Stars
Genre: Mystery
Pages: 202
Words: 75.5K

Synopsis:

From Wikipedia

While on their way to a rural exposition in upstate New York to show orchids, Nero Wolfe and Archie Goodwin are involved in a minor car accident. On their way to a nearby house to phone for help, they are threatened by a large bull but are eventually rescued by Caroline Pratt, a local golf champion, and her show more acquaintance Lily Rowan. The house and bull belong to Thomas Pratt, Caroline's uncle and the owner of a large chain of successful fast food restaurants, and he has purchased the bull—a champion Guernsey called Hickory Caesar Grindon—in order to barbecue it as part of a publicity stunt.

While Wolfe and Archie enjoy Pratt's hospitality, they meet several of Pratt's family and neighbours—Jimmy Pratt, Pratt's indolent nephew; Monte McMillan, the original owner of Caesar, who sold the bull to Pratt after falling into financial difficulties; Clyde Osgood and his sister Nancy, the children of Pratt's neighbour Frederick Osgood; and a New Yorker named Howard Bronson, who is apparently a friend of Clyde. There is tension between the Pratt and Osgood families due to a bitter rivalry between Thomas Pratt and Frederick Osgood, and when tempers flare Clyde makes a bet with Pratt that the latter will not barbecue Caesar. As Pratt is already paranoid due to the hostility of local farmers opposed to his plans to cook Caesar, Wolfe offers Archie's services as a guard for Caesar in exchange for a comfortable stay at Pratt's house. During his watch that night, Lily Rowan shows up to keep Archie company, and together they discover Clyde's body, gored to death in the pasture.

The local authorities assume that Clyde was simply gored by Caesar during an attempt to sabotage Pratt's plans, but Wolfe believes that Clyde was murdered; the bull's face was cleaner than it would have been had he fatally attacked Clyde. His suspicions are shared by Frederick Osgood, who knows his son to be an experienced cattle-man who would not have made the amateurish mistakes that would have caused his death had the bull been responsible. The elder Osgood consequently hires Wolfe to learn the identity of the murderer and agrees to house him in comfort for the duration of the investigation. Archie is also hired by Caroline Pratt to prevent what she believes to be Lily Rowan's attempts to seduce her brother Jimmy.

In a meeting with Waddell, the local district attorney, Wolfe proposes that the murder weapon was in fact a digging pick that the murderer used to fake the attack, having first knocked Clyde out and dragged him into the paddock. Waddell, who has a petty rivalry with the elder Osgood, is skeptical but is nevertheless convinced to reopen the investigation. However, before the investigation can proceed far, sudden news comes that Caesar has died suddenly of anthrax. In order to prevent it spreading, this means that the bull will be automatically cremated. Wolfe dispatches Archie to either delay the cremation or take as many photos of the bull as possible before this, but Archie arrives too late to do either.

After interviewing Nancy Osgood, Wolfe learns that Bronson is in fact a New York loan shark who has been shadowing Clyde in order to ensure he receives $10,000 that Clyde borrowed to cover his gambling debts. When confronted by Wolfe and Archie, Bronson confirms this, but is vague and unhelpful when questioned regarding Clyde's death, leading Wolfe to suspect that Bronson knows more than he is saying. Out of respect for Nancy Osgood, Wolfe has Archie recover the promissory note Bronson was holding over Clyde by force, but warns the loan shark to be careful.

The next day, Wolfe's orchids win numerous prizes at the exposition, defeating a hated rival in the process. While following some of Wolfe's instructions, Archie discovers Jimmy Pratt and Nancy Osgood in a secret rendezvous; the two are lovers, but have kept their relationship secret from their feuding parents. By chance, during their confrontation Archie also stumbles upon the body of Howard Bronson, gored with a pitchfork and hidden under straw. He manages to conceal the body and returns to Wolfe with the news. But when the body is discovered, Archie is detained by Captain Barrow, the bullying local head of the state police, and is imprisoned by the authorities as a material witness when he refuses to reveal what he knows.

The next day, Wolfe secures Archie's release with the promise to that he knows who the murderer is and will soon expose him to the authorities. To Archie, Wolfe admits that despite knowing the murderer's identity, the evidence that will enable him to prove it has been efficiently destroyed. Nevertheless, based on his memory and official records from the local farming authorities, Wolfe draws some sketches of the bull that he and Archie encountered and uses them to confront Monte McMillan. Wolfe has deduced that the bull that Thomas Pratt purchased and intended to barbecue was not, in fact, Caesar at all. The champion bull was killed in an anthrax outbreak that decimated almost all of McMillan's herd, and the bull that was passed off as Caesar was in fact Hickory Buckingham Pell, a similar but inferior twin. Facing financial ruin, McMillan sold Buckingham as Caesar for an outrageous sum, but due to his experience with cattle Clyde realised the deception and was planning to expose it to win his bet. McMillan thus murdered Clyde to silence him, and later killed Bronson when the loan shark, realising that McMillan was the murderer, tried to blackmail him.

Although Wolfe admits that McMillan has covered his tracks well and is unlikely to be convicted of murder, the evidence Wolfe has manufactured is sufficient to convict McMillan of fraud, which would expose and ruin him nonetheless. Accepting defeat, McMillan reveals that he has infected himself with anthrax and agrees to write a confession out for Wolfe before dying. Months later, Archie records the case, revealing in the process that Jimmy Pratt and Nancy Osgood are engaged to be married and that he has begun a friendship with Lily Rowan, who has returned to New York.

My Thoughts:

First off, I am giving this the Best Book of the Year tag. This is the first time I felt a book was good enough to get that tag this year. I haven't been paying that much attention to this kind of thing and when I don't pay attention it tends to slip under the radar. With the end of the year fast approaching, that is always a wake up call for me.

Plus, I just had a rollicking good time for the entire book. Archie particularly made me laugh and smile again and again. In one instance, when he's thrown in jail more reasons of clashing of wills between Wolfe and the police, he organizes a Union and elects a president and treasurer, etc and writes up a bunch of rules that they are going to submit to the Warden. It was pure cheek and was done simply to annoy the Warden. It was done in Archie's easy going but tough way that you just had to enjoy it!

There is also the confrontational frission between Wolfe and his client. He warns the client to not hire him but that if he does X,Y and Z will happen. Sure enough, they do and Wolfe lambastes the client for complaining about them when he, Wolfe, had already warned him. At first glance Wolfe appears to be an arrogant jackass but when you take into account who we see him interacting with, it's no surprise and the real wonder is that Wolfe hasn't become a complete misanthrope to everybody he meets.

Finally, I enjoyed Archie's romantic sparring with Lily Rowan. They both have no longterm use for the opposite sex or at least to push the idea of marriage as far down the road as possible and as such make great foils for each other. I don't expect them to get married though and I even wonder if we'll see Lilly again in future books or not. So far I don't remember any recurring young women. As long as Archie doesn't turn into some sort of cad, I'll be ok with the trend though.

Overall, I just have to sit back and marvel that Rex Stout is such a wordsmith. To make characters like Wolfe and Archie, to craft scenes like the one near the beginning when Wolfe is stuck on top of a boulder while an angry bull stalks around the pasture, it just makes me glad that I did decide to read this series. Good stuff.

★★★★✬ show less

Nero Wolfe and his assistant Archie Goodwin are on their way to an agricultural fair where Wolfe will exhibit orchids when a car accident strands them in a rural area. They head for the nearest house they can see using the most direct route through a field, only to be stranded by a fierce-looking bull. When they’re finally rescued, they learn that the bull is a national champion, Hickory Caesar Grindon. The bull is the center of controversy since his current owner, Pratt, intends to barbecue him later in the week to generate publicity for his restaurant. Pratt has a long-standing feud with the neighboring cattleman, Osgood. Soon Osgood’s son is dead, apparently gored by the bull. But what was he doing in the bull’s pasture during show more the night? Was his death truly accidental, or was it murder? If it was murder, the culprit made a big mistake by carrying it out right under Wolfe’s nose.

I listened to the audio version, and I probably would have enjoyed it more in print format. The plot is complicated enough that it was sometimes difficult to follow in the audio version. And I kept confusing the two “B” characters, Bennett and Bronson. Finally, the reader sounded like the television announcers from my childhood. The best part of the book is that it introduces Lily Rowan, who will have a recurring role in the series as Archie’s girlfriend. show less

This was my first Rex Stout novel. It took me a bit to get into the book but once I did, I was hooked. I love the interaction between the two main characters. I also like how clues are given but you do not fully know what is going through Wolfe's mind. I also love that Stout could write a great mystery completely surrounded by the death of a bull.