Murder in the Ball Park

A Nero Wolfe Mystery

By: Robert Goldsborough

Narrated by: L. J. Ganser

Nero Wolfe earns a big league call-up after a senator gets taken out at the ball game.

Archie Goodwin and detective Saul Panzer have ventured into the wilds of northern Manhattan to watch the Giants take on the Dodgers at the Polo Grounds. The national anthem is just winding down when Panzer spies a notable in the box seats: State Senator Orson Milbank, a silver-haired scoundrel with enemies in every corner of upstate New York. In the fourth inning, a monstrous line drive brings every fan in the grandstand to his feet - every fan save for one silver-haired senator, who has been shot dead by a sniper in the upper deck.

Archie’s employer - the rotund genius Nero Wolfe - has no interest in investigating the stadium slaying, but Archie is swayed by the senator’s suspiciously lovely widow. Her husband was mired hip-deep in corruption, and sorting out who killed him will be a task far less pleasant than an afternoon at the ball park.

©2014 Robert Goldsborough (P)2021 Blackstone Publishing

Murder in the Ball Park

Set in the 1950s, this story was the most similar to the original Nero Wolfs in plot and actions. I have listened to several of the Robert Goldsboro books, and this would be one of my favorite.

Another Super Nero Wolfe

I have to admit that when I first started listening to this book, I thought “hmmm… I just don’t know about this..”. I have read all the Nero Wolff books by Rex Stout that I have been able to get my hands on and am now reading Robert Goldsborough‘s books. i have thoroughly enjoyed them all perhaps with just one or two exceptions. But I had not before now I had an opportunity to listen to one of them in audible form. Like most avid readers, you hear in your mind how you think the characters would sound … the same was true of course with me. At first, I didn’t think this was going to work. But once Mr. Ganser got into his stride, it soon became clear that this would turn out to be great. Also, the storyline itself was just not inspirational to begin with but this turned out a lot more complicated than it appeared it was going to be on the front end with several avenues of stories going along at one time. Mr. Ganser did a fantastic job with all of the voices, including the women which is unusual. At the end of the story in the “reveal”, he had no less than a dozen voices that he was switching back-and-forth between. Only a couple times throughout the book did he fail to switch perfectly to the prior speaker but these were just very few and far between. I was so glad to be able to get these Robert Goldsborough books through Audible Plus and will keep listening to Mr. Ganser to the end. Just hate that there are no Rex Stout books available without purchasing. If you’ve never read a Nero Wolfe book, give it a try.

Great listening!

I loved to listen to the different characters in the story. I enjoyed the story a lot

Good Voice Narration for Archie

It's hard to match the authorship of Rex Stout, but I'm glad to have these new stories even if they are not quite...quite... like the originals. Excellent narrator for Archie.

Goldsborough is getting closer

Goldsborough is getting closer to Rex Stuot's writing. This book is a major step up from previous versions of Goldsborough's Nero Wolfe. There is much more incidental humor and Nero Wolfe-isms. I almost feel like I'm listening to a Rex Stout book. Nice job L. J.
The performance was on the money. I have previously commented on his pronunciation of "phooey." In this book, he got it right!
I feel like both Goldsborough and Ganser have done further studies of previous iterations of texts and performances of Nero Wolfe.