Book 3

Bloodied Ivy

by Robert Goldsborough

Published 1 July 1988
A professor's death lures the reclusive detective and his sidekick to a bucolic crime scene: "Goldsborough does a masterly job with the Wolfe legacy" (Booklist).

An academic so conservative he thought Ronald Reagan was a pinko, Hale Markham rules Prescott University like an intellectual tyrant-until the morning he's found dead at the bottom of one of Prescott's famously beautiful ravines. Every liberal on campus hated the crotchety old crank, but which one is responsible for giving Markham his final push to the right? The case so intrigues the incomparable, reclusive master detective Nero Wolfe that he takes the unusual step of leaving the confines of his home. With man of action Archie Goodwin at his side, Wolfe examines jealous professors, a fanatical assistant, and a university president with an ego that-like the school itself-will not stop growing. Though they're far from the city, Wolfe and Goodwin will find that no back alley is as dangerous as the shadowy corridors of the Ivy League.

Murder in E Minor

by Robert Goldsborough

Published 1 March 1986
Iconic sleuth Nero Wolfe returns to track down the murderer of a New York Symphony Orchestra conductor in this Nero Award-winning mystery.

Ever since disgraced associate Orrie Cather's suicide, armchair detective Nero Wolfe has relished retirement in his Manhattan brownstone on West Thirty-Fifth Street. Two years after Cather's death, only a visit from Maria Radovich-and the urging of Wolfe's prize assistant, Archie Goodwin-could draw the eccentric and reclusive genius back into business. Maria's uncle, New York Symphony Orchestra conductor Milan Stevens, formerly known as Milos Stefanovic, spent his youth alongside Wolfe as a fellow freedom fighter in the mountains of Montenegro. And now that the maestro has been receiving death threats, Wolfe can't turn his back on the compatriot who once saved his life.

Though her uncle has dismissed the menacing letters, Maria fears they're more than the work of a harmless crank. But before Wolfe can attack the case, Stevens is murdered. The accused is the orchestra's lead violinist, whose intimate relationship with Maria hit more than a few sour notes in her uncle's professional circle. But Wolfe knows that when it comes to murder, nothing is so simple-especially when there are so many suspects, from newspaper critics and ex-lovers to an assortment of shady musicians.

Now, in this award-winning novel that carries on the great tradition of Rex Stout, the irascible and immovable Nero Wolfe is back in the game, listening for clues and ready to go to war to find a killer.

Murder in E Minor is the 48th book in the Nero Wolfe Mysteries, but you may enjoy reading the series in any order.