The Deadly Duo

KS: Let's cut right to the chase.  It has been some time since you put out your last Nero Wolfe book.  Tell us what you have been working on since then? 

RG:  For several years after I wrote my last Wolfe book, The Missing Chapter, I concentrated on non-fiction writing and editing for my employer, Advertising Age magazine.  This work included The Crain Adventure, a book on the history of Crain Communications, the parent company of Advertising Age.

KS: How was writing the story for Three Strikes You're Dead different from writing the Nero Wolfe stories? 

RG: The Wolfe books are classic private detective stories.  Three Strikes has as its protagonist a newspaper reporter.  True, this reporter, Steve Malek, functions here in a detective’s role, but he is first and foremost a newspaperman in quest of a scoop.  This is really a newspaper story as well as a murder mystery.  There’s a lot about journalism in the book. 

KS: Tell us a little bit about Steve Malek and the inspiration behind his character. 

RG: First off, there’s some of Archie Goodwin in him.  His personal life differs markedly from Archie’s, but I tried to invest in him some of Archie’s personality traits, including cockiness, irreverence, verve, and brashness.  Beyond that, because I worked in newspaper business (at the Tribune) in Chicago for more than 20 years, I got to know a lot of reporters, and Steve is at least in part a composite of some of them.  

KS: Since you have begun a thread for yourself with Steve Malek, do you see him in future projects? 

RG: Yes.  I’m playing with an idea for a second Malek story, also set in Chicago, this one in the early 1940s.   

KS: I personally loved the way you integrated such colorful characters as Helen Hayes and Dizzy Dean into your story.  Do you think this might become a trademark technique for you in future works? 

RG: I do.  Part of my research on Three Strikes consisted of poring over microfilms of the five Chicago newspapers from 1938 in the city’s main public library.  I came across all manner of interesting events, and I ended up incorporating many of them—and the actual people involved—in the storyline.  And I supplemented that research by reading biographies of several of these people, among them Ms. Hayes, Dean, Col. Robert McCormick, publisher of the Chicago Tribune, Al Capone, and Richard J. Daley, who eventually became Chicago’s mayor.     

KS: Do you think that the discipline needed to follow in such incredibly detailed footsteps as Rex Stout's helped you with the writing of this story? 

RG: Definitely, although it’s a different kind of detail subset.  In the Wolfe books, I had to be careful to make sure I got the details about Wolfe’s routine, his orchids, and other specifics about the Manhattan brownstone correctly; such arcane things as the diameter of the globe in his office and the dimensions of the Oriental rug in his office.  In Three Strikes, I worked to ensure that actual events and places were presented accurately and in the correct time frame, even though fictional people were inserted into these events and places.      

KS: Can you give us a little insight into what it was like working with Mr. Stout's estate and Bantam to get those books done? 

RG: The estate was very cooperative in granting me the right to be the continuator of the series.  They shared in the royalties, of course, but that is not unusual.  These were Mr. Stout’s characters, his creations, and I saw myself in essentially a caretaker role.

KS: You received so many rave reviews from the industry and fans for the Nero Wolfe books, but you also garnered some defiance from readers.  Do you have any regrets that you were unable to continue with those books, or are you glad to be claiming a new place in the mystery market? 

RG: True, some readers objected to my continuing the Wolfe series, some because they didn’t think I did a good job, others because they felt no one else should be allowed to write about Nero and Archie.  And I respect that latter position.  Also, some sharp-eyed readers found places where I made a factual error about some aspect of Wolfe’s or Archie’s life or the brownstone.  I always quickly acknowledged those complaints with a mea culpa.  I was flattered that readers cared enough to write.  I had no regrets ending my Nero Wolfe series.  I wanted to try some new things, and to develop my own character.  

KS: What has generated your interest in the Golden Age mysteries and do you see them holding strong in the future? 

RG: I love 20th century history, particularly of the 1930s and 1940s, and of Chicago and its environs, which has been my home for these last 67-plus years.

KS: Is your loyalty to this era of mysteries, or do you have a secret desire to write something completely different, and what might that be? 

RG: I see myself primarily as a storyteller.  Thus, I’m comfortable with the Three Strikes You’re Dead type of book, with its mixing or real and fictional people and its revisiting of actual events as an integral part of the story.

KS: What can fans expect from you in the future? 

RG: Another Steve Malek book—that is, if you are willing to publish it.

KS: Please feel free to offer some closing thoughts,  and thank you for taking the time to share with us.

RG: It’s been a decade since I’ve had a fiction book published—partly by choice—and I had forgotten what an exhilarating experience it is.  I only hope that readers will feel some exhilaration as well.

"Robert Goldsborough, the man who so brilliantly brought Rex Stout's Nero Wolfe and Archie Goodwin back to literary life, has returned with a new detective, all his own – and that's cause for any mystery fan to rejoice!  Goldsborough is a master storyteller, providing crackling dialogue and plot twists around every corner – readers are in for a real treat!" 

–Max Allan Collins, author of ROAD TO PURGATORY