ARCHIE MEETS NERO WOLFE

This is classy, literate, clean, cozy, highly-recognizable and features two of the most enduring and beloved detectives in all of literary history.

Using references found throughout Rex Stout’s classic, internationally bestselling Nero Wolfe mysteries, Nero Award-winner Robert Goldsborough imagines the pre-history of the Wolfe stories: Archie Goodwin’s transition from Ohio to Depression-era New York and the case that brought Archie and Nero together. From the time he began reading Rex Stout’s Nero Wolfe mysteries some 60 years ago as a teenager, Robert Golsdborough was fascinated by how Wolfe and his irrepressible sidekick and chronicler, Archie Goodwin, happened to join forces. We don’t know the answer in Mr. Stout’s compelling mysteries because when Wolfe and Goodwin appear in their first novel, “Fer-de-Lance” (1934), there is no back story and little detail about their previous lives. This fascination with the beginnings of the partnership continued when Goldsborough became privileged to be the family-approved continuator of the Wolfe series after Mr. Stout’s death in 1975. During the 1980s and ’90s, Goldsborough was author of seven Nero Wolfe mysteries for Bantam Books but never delved into the origins of the team. Still, Goldsborough remained intrigued by the possibility of some day writing about how Archie came to meet Nero. He became further enthused about the idea in 2009 with the publication of longtime mystery novelist Joe Gores’ “Spade & Archer,” a prequel to Dashiell Hammett’s “The Maltese Falcon.” Mr. Gores, who died in 2011, had brilliantly captured the essence of Hammett’s characters and the noir flavor of his writing and his settings. That sealed the deal for Robert Goldsborough, and he began to form what was to become ARCHIE MEETS NERO WOLFE. In developing the story, he made use of what few clues Mr. Stout had sprinkled around in his tales, including a brief reference to the kidnapping of a wealthy hotelier’s son. That kidnapping became a central focus of this book, along with young Archie Goodwin’s coming of age as a detective in the Manhattan of 1930. Approved by Mr. Stout’s estate, ARCHIE MEETS NERO WOLFE will be released in November 2012, both in print and as an e-book, by Mysterious Press.com in conjunction with Open Road. According to Robert Goldsborough, working with Otto Penzler — longtime head of Mysterious Press — is very fitting because it was at Penzler's Mysterious Bookshop in New York City that he launched his first Nero Wolfe novel, Murder in E Minor, 28 years ago! Robert Goldsborough (b. 1937) is an American author best known for continuing Rex Stout’s famous NeroWolfe series. Born in Chicago, he attended Northwestern University, and upon graduation went to work for the Associated Press, beginning a lifelong career in journalism that would include long periods at the Chicago Tribune and Advertising Age. While at the Tribune, Goldsborough began writing mysteries in the voice of Rex Stout, the creator of iconic sleuths Nero Wolfe and Archie Goodwin. Goldsborough’s first novel starring Wolfe, Murder in E Minor (1986), was met with acclaim both from critics and devoted fans, winning a Nero Award from the Wolfe Pack. Six more novels followed, including Death on Deadline (1987) and Fade to Black (1990). In 2005, Goldsborough published Three Strikes You’re Dead, the first in an original series starring Chicago Tribune reporter Snap Malek. His most recent novel is Terror at the Fair (2011).