The Battered Badge
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3.9 • 9 Ratings
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- $11.99
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- $11.99
Publisher Description
A shake-up in the NYPD homicide squad following a high-profile murder is bad for business for private investigator Nero Wolfe.
When wealthy and popular crusader and reformer Lester Pierce is gunned down in front of his Park Avenue residence, the public outcry forces the NYPD to restructure its homicide department. As the deceased was highly critical of Inspector Lionel Cramer, the longtime head of homicide is temporarily relieved of his badge. But it seems Cramer was not just a scapegoat: He was seen dining in Little Italy with mob kingpin Ralph Mars.
All of which amounts to little more than conversational fodder for PI Nero Wolfe and his assistant Archie Goodwin. But if Cramer’s provisional replacement, Capt. George Rowcliff, becomes permanent, Wolfe’s future dealings with the force will be much compromised. Loath to depart from his routine, Wolfe makes the unusual decision to take on a case without an actual client.
His investigation quickly points toward Pierce’s organization, Good Government Group, where high-minded idealism is often trampled under the competing ambitions of the staff—several of whom would clearly have benefited from Pierce’s demise. Despite the burgeoning list of suspects, Wolfe hasn’t ruled out the involvement of the underworld and its connection to Cramer. But in order to untangle an abundance of motives and end the inspector’s forced furlough, Wolfe may have to venture out of his comfort zone—and the premises of his brownstone.
Continuing his beloved series—which also includes Archie Meets Nero Wolfe, Murder in the Ball Park, Archie in the Crosshairs, and Murder, Stage Left—Nero Award–winning author Robert Goldsborough “demonstrates an impressive ability to emulate Rex Stout’s narrative voice” (Publishers Weekly, starred review).
The Battered Badge is the 60th book in the Nero Wolfe Mysteries, but you may enjoy reading the series in any order.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Goldsborough does a nice job of shaking up the status quo in his 13th Nero Wolfe and Archie Goodwin pastiche (after 2017's Murder, Stage Left). Lester Pierce, the director of the Good Government Group known as Three-G, who singled out Insp. Lionel Cramer, the head of NYPD's homicide squad, for criticism over the department's subpar record cracking down on the mob, has been gunned down in an apparent gangland hit. Cramer is suspected of involvement in the murder, leading his loyal sergeant, Purley Stebbins, to swallow his pride and go to the famous West 35th Street brownstone to ask for help. After Cramer's suspension, Wolfe eventually gets involved in probing the crime from the comfort of his armchair. He pursues the less obvious theory that organized crime wasn't responsible by sending Archie, his leg man, out to interview Pierce's surviving relatives and a colleague at Three-G who may have coveted the top slot. The denouement is a clever inversion of the usual resolutions in Rex Stout's iconic Nero Wolfe novels of the last century, even if the solution is not Goldsborough's best.
