Archie Meets Nero Wolfe

I liked Goldsborough's first couple of Nero Wolfe/Archie Goodwin books, but thought they dropped off in quality quickly and far. So why did I pick up Archie Meets Nero Wolfe? Well, it'd been eighteen years – so for Goldsborough to come back, there had to be a good reason – a story he cared about. He had time to get the voice right, the details “just so.” I was more than a little curious, too, just how did he see this initial meeting?

Oh, and, fine – I'll be honest. You put out anything with the label “Nero Wolfe” on it and I'll read it.

But, I did put it off for months. Take that, Goldsborough.

But I had hope. And that hope was buttressed after a few pages when I read:

...I got grilled by a surly lieutenant named Rowcliff, who had bulging eyes and a snarling voice that broke into a stutter when he got excited, which seemed to be much of the time.
He kept trying to get me to say that I fired at the robbers first. I was nervous, but when I wouldn't budge off my story, his stuttering got worse, which would have been funny under different circumstances.

Fer-de-Lance