Sat 10 Aug 2019
Archived PI Review: DALE L. GILBERT – Murder Begins at Home.
Posted by Steve under Reviews[4] Comments
DALE L. GILBERT – Murder Begins at Home. Carter Winfield & Matt Doyle #3. St. Martin’s, hardcover, 1989. No paperback edition.
Ever wonder what it would be like if Nero Wolfe and his gang were to move to San Diego, take up new identities and went back into business? Well, dream on. This isn’t it, but it’s close. Slightly whacked ouyand steamed up, but close. Blame it on Californication.
Matt Doyle is the legman for reclusive/exclusive PI Carter Winfield, and in this case,they go to work (under duress) for a Mafia kingpin who needs a bodyguard for hi family. The writing is vaguely reminiscent of the pulps, but the characters are vividly drawn.
{UPDATE] I followed this at the time with a footnote that included a detailed description of what I found to be a serious plot flaw. Reading it now, though, I found it boring and uninteresting. Deciding that you would too, in the context of a review that I now consider to be far too short, I’ve omitted it.
What I really would like to know now is more about the Nero Wolfe-Archie Goodwin connection. I didn’t go into that very well back in 1989, and I guess the only way I’m going to be able to is to find my copy of this book and read it again.
This was the final book in the series. It was preceded by The Black Star Murders (1988) and The Mother Murders (1989). Dale Gilbert, the author, died in 1988.
August 10th, 2019 at 11:27 pm
The likelihood of lightening striking twice re the Nero Wolfe/Archie Goodwin teaming strikes me as unlikely. Unlike Holmes/Watson, which was fairly easy to emulate if not get right, the Wolfe/Goodwin pairing is unique to a single voice and a single pairing.
So much of the Wolfe/Goodwin pairing and the enjoyment of the books relies not on plot or resolution but endless variations on their relationship that it would be a Herculean task to copy it.
August 11th, 2019 at 11:44 am
After posting this old review, I went looking online to see what other opinions I might find.
Kirkus said: “Posthumous finale to the Carter Winfield/Matt Doyle trilogy (cf. Nero Wolfe/Archie Goodwin) and the most proficient of the lot, with better writing and an engaging premise…” and “Fuzzy ending, but still likable if not innovative.”
But Publishers Weekly said: “… needless tangents and asides, slowing an already desultory plot. In fact, it’s the pretentious Winfield who has the best grasp of the situation, but he doesn’t share his explanation until the last page–which is followed, unsurprisingly, by an epilogue. Carnuzzi’s scheme may have been a clever one, but this posthumously published yarn dilutes it.”
You’re right, David, about the Wolfe characters being very difficult to imitate. I haven’t read any of the seven followup books written by Robert Goldsborough, though. I’ve been waiting until I finished all the Stout ones first, but the end is still not yet in sight, and even if it was, I’d probably start over. I assume that his were sanctioned by the Stout estate. Has anyone read them?
August 11th, 2019 at 6:37 pm
I read the first three(?) by Goldsborough, think I last the thread of the end of the series, I believe…
They were fairly well done–perfectly adequate–certainly better than no unread Stout left to read.
I have read all Stout’s Wolfe. I thought Goldsborough’s greatest triumph was in recreating the tone of the banter between Nero and Archie.
I wouldn’t pay a premium to get them, but if you run into one at a library sale, you might try one…
August 11th, 2019 at 9:04 pm
Goldsborough didn’t get it right until later in the series, with his most recent about how Wolfe and Archie met worth reading, but to quote Mark Twain when his wife first cussed in front of him he “got the words right, but the rhythm wrong …” at first like many writers struggling to recreate a famous voice.
Stout’s background and career made him a particularly hard writer to copy. By the time he created Wolfe and Archie he had made a million in accounting, written a celebrated mainstream novel, and been know as a successful pulpster, so much of what and how he wrote was unique to him he is hard to pastiche compared to some other writers.
That said, the Goldsborough Wolfe’s got better and like August Derelith’s Solar Pons or John Gardner’s James Bond, have developed their own pleasures. As Rick points out he has gotten the byplay between Wolfe and Archie down if you want to read a new adventure rather than a more familiar one and he has filled in gaps in the background Stout left unanswered.