The Missing Heiress

Rex Stout's Nero Wolfe Mysteries #17

by Robert Goldsborough

The daughter of a steel magnate disappears, and Nero and Archie must forge ahead with an investigation in this new mystery from the award–winning author.

Archie Goodwin’s very good friend, Lily Rowan, spends much of her time—and considerable financial resources—helping women in need, from underpaid workers to mistreated wives. But at the moment she’s particularly concerned about one woman: her best friend, Maureen, a beautiful socialite who’s been incommunicado for two weeks.

After Archie helps Lily comb through Maureen’s deserted Park Avenue penthouse, and Lily contacts each of her friend’s well-heeled suitors, they still don’t know much more than when they started. Then Archie tries to track down Maureen’s estranged half-brother, but he seems to have vanished as well. Fortunately, Archie’s employer, Nero Wolfe, has a soft spot for Lily. He volunteers to step in—just in time, too, as this missing-person case soon becomes a murder case . . .

Genres: Mystery, Historical Mystery, Fiction

223 pages, Kindle Edition

First published June 6, 2023

About the author

Robert Goldsborough is an American author of mystery novels. He was born in 1937 and grew up in the Chicago area. Although he worked for 45 years for the Chicago Tribune and Advertising Age, he first came to prominence in the 1980s with the publication, with the approval of the estate of Rex Stout, of his Nero Wolfe mystery Murder in E Minor. Written privately for his mother back in 1978, shortly after the death of Stout, creator of the Wolfe stories, the novel received a Nero Award.

Six other Nero Wolfe books followed from Goldsborough, all favorably received. However, more recently he has turned his attention to creating books with his own characters, beginning with Three Strikes You're Dead, a novel set in pre-war Chicago, and starring Steve Malek, a reporter for the Tribune.

Series:
* Nero Wolfe Novels by Robert Goldsborough
* Snap Malek Mystery

Reviews

[Abibliofob · Rating 4 out of 5]

I have loved Nero Wolfe since the early 80s and have enjoyed the takeover by Robert Goldsborough immensely. The Missing Heiress is the 17th book in his version of the adventures in the brownstone on the 35th street. It's not the best in the series but it is still great fun reading. I found this book lacking some of the trademark banter and linguistic fun usually found in a Wolfe story. But we get almost all the characters we love in this story. Archie, Saul, Lily, Fritz, Lon and Cramer. The last couple of books has been great but I didn't feel the right edge to this one but it is a Nero Wolfe story and I will always love one of those.

[hotsake (André Troesch) · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5/5
While this was not a great mystery, I was surprised by how enjoyable it ended up being. This was one of Goldsborough's better rebooted Wolfe books. The mystery was pretty humdrum but the characters felt a lot more authentic than in most of the more recent novels which was a pleasant surprise.

[Jim Yearsley · Rating 3 out of 5]

starting to slip.

I have, for the most part enjoyed Mr. Goldsborough’s efforts to keep Archie and Nero active.

However, I was disappointed with this latest effort. The plotting in this story seems simplistic. In addition, it seems to me that Mr. Goldsborough has lost his ear for Archie’s voice and presence. What should be wry and engaging instead comes across as stilted and strained.

In spite of that I’ll look for the next effort.

[Susan · Rating 3 out of 5]

Like her close friend Lily Rowan, Maureen Carr is a beautiful, wealthy socialite with philanthropic interests. When she stops frequenting her usual haunts, Lily investigates with the help of her long-time friend Archie Goodwin. Noting Archie's distraction, Nero Wolfe involves himself in the search. But the plot aside, I want to register my continuing astonishment at the author's inability or unwillingness to write convincing dialog (ironically, one of Rex Stout's strengths). Wolfe himself, of course, is often pedantic; but reading Archie talking to Lily, or the local garage proprietor talking to Archie is enough to make one laugh out loud. As Goldsborough would never stoop to writing, for crying out loud!

[Tim Blackburn · Rating 4 out of 5]

New Nero Wolfe Mystery

Thanks to Robert Goldsborough for faithfully continuing the Nero Wolfe franchise decades after the creator, Rex Stout, passed away. This mystery is somewhat unusual in that it begins with a missing person case. Lily Rowan plays a significant role in this novel and Mr. Goldsborough uses her role to more fully develop the Lily Rowan character. I love this fuller character development that Mr Goldsborough employs to give the reader more knowledge about relatively minor characters. It's great fun for we fans of Nero Wolfe and it doesn't hurt anything. Very good mystery.

[Brad Ost · Rating 1 out of 5]

not an unexpected disappointment

I keep promising myself I won’t buy another Goldsborough Wolfe book. Yet I keep doing it when the price goes below 5 dollars. Even at that price they have, for years, not been worth it. As one reviewer said, the dialogue is cringe worthy. The plot is mediocre. And much seems to be inserted merely to check the box of common Wolfe idiosyncrasies. I am mystified that the stout estate continues to approve of this arrangement. I don’t want to attack Goldsborough, because this may be the best he can do. But I would urge the Stout estate to find another author to give us more Wolfe adventures.

[George Sr. · Rating 4 out of 5]

A very good addition to the Nero Wolfe corpus. I do have one quibble. The dialog doesn’t sound like the dialog from the original series. Too much banter among the members of the supporting cast, and they all seem to speak with the same voice and vocabulary. Still, it is good to have a new Nero Wolfe series going. I have read every book in the original series at least twice, and several in Goldsborough’s series multiple times.

[Athena Porter · Rating 3 out of 5]

I found it off that Archie kept calling Lily "my dear". The characters all seemed a bit off their usual. Mr Goldsborough does a thorough job of research on the old books and usually I don't notice the changes. This story just didn't ring true for me.

[Gilbert Stack · Rating 4 out of 5]

Goldborough has been continuing the series of Nero Wolfe books originally written by the late Rex Stout. Overall, his novels are quite enjoyable and this one was no exception. Set shortly after the end of World War II, a wealthy friend of Lily Rowan has gone missing and Wolfe agrees to locate her. That investigation is quite interesting, but any person who is familiar with the Wolfe stories know, there's always going to be a murder at some point in the novel that will kick the case into high gear. This time that murder happens very late, but the pieces to uncover who committed the crime have been carefully sprinkled about in the first three-quarters of the tale. I came very close to figuring out the culprit, but failed in the end.

While I really enjoyed reading the novel, this book doesn't hit the fantastic highs that so many other works in the series do. That may, at least in part, be due to the real "crime" not happening until so late in the story, which minimizes the interaction with Cramer and the police. The great final scene in which Wolfe always gathers everyone involved in the case together so that he can trick the killer into revealing him or herself just didn't have the impact that we have to come to expect from this series.

[Kathleen · Rating 2 out of 5]

I have read each of the original Rex Stout "Nero Wolfe mysteries" and enjoyed the quirky detective and his acerbic assistant, Archie Goodwin. When Stout's estate authorized Robert Goldsborough to continue the Nero Wolfe books I was skeptical, but I have enjoyed several of them.
This outing, however, is very pedestrian and lacks any of the catchy dialogue that I expect from Archie. He seems obsessed with reasonably common three syllable words as if amazed that other people have a standard SAT (per Lily) vocabulary. In addition, the story of the missing woman was not interesting at all. Normally I would finish the book to discover the mystery, but I just didn't care.

I was almost 75% finished and bored enough to find another book to read. I usually read at night before I go to sleep but with this book I could only get through 5-6 pages before I had to call it a night. I will have to depend on the reviews of the "new" Nero Wolfe books before I commit to another one.

[Antonietta tesfaye · Rating 3 out of 5]

I assume that stepping into such large shoes to follow up a remarkable author is a very tricky job. To make it your own as well as to respect the work of the original creator, must be a daunting job. On its own this is a pretty good mystery, but for Rex stouts Long time readers, we notice the differences and it quite doesn't fit. I am also confused on the timeline, I need to go back and remember when one of the hired detectives were he was killed. Because I think this installment dated after he is no longer with us but yet he's in this book. I'm also trying to understand why Lillian didn't let Archie and Nero know that the friend was back and staying with her. It's kind of silly that she didn't pick up the phone and let them know since she hired them to look for her.

[Alex · Rating 3 out of 5]

A solid Nero Wolfe mystery, The Missing Heiress by Robert Goldsborough, was enjoyed. The intricate plot and Wolfe's characteristic deductions were appreciated. However, a frustrating listening experience was had due to technical issues with the @chirp platform. Portions of the book were skipped around, it was reported, which disrupted the narrative flow. Despite this technical difficulty, the story itself was found to be engaging. A classic Wolfean atmosphere was successfully evoked. The characters were well-developed, and the mystery was cleverly plotted. Overall, the book itself is recommended, though a different listening platform might be considered by those who prefer audiobooks.

[James E. Ferris · Rating 4 out of 5]

He hits the formula close to perfect.

This has all the elements I expected to read of an Archie and Wolfe mystery.
You know what they are.
Archie leads the dialog and action, while Wolfe in this story is almost a supporting background character, with a lot of character development given to Lily Rowan.
Some details are left a bit sketchy, though they are not really relevant to the conclusion.
And I even got to the solution right along with Wolfe - all the pieces fell into place.
This was not one of the more challenging mysteries Wolfe has had to solve but still an interesting read.
A bit of Social Fun for Archie and Lily.

[Okemos · Rating 4 out of 5]

not as good as Stout’s mysteries

This mystery is a pleasant, breezy read based on Rex Stout’s Nero Wolfe novels. It captures some of the character traits of the detective and his sidekick-storyteller, Archie Goodwin, but not their true character. We read lots about how abrupt, etc. Wolfe is but in this novel, he has a heart of gold. It also takes little intelligence (or explanation) to figure out the murderer. Goodwin is no hard boiled detective. Instead, he bandies words with his college educates, English major, significant other. Nothing objectionable about Wolfe or Goodwin appears in the book, and that disappointed me. Still, I enjoyed it in a mild way.

[Pat · Rating 2 out of 5]

sadly

This book was not up to the Rex Stout’s books. It seemed the first few Goldsborough wrote stayed close to the originals. Then gradually they began to stray. This will be the last one I read. I was disgusted with this authors attempts to add to his vocabulary giving poor choices of words to Mr Wolfe. I never thought Rex Stouts vocabulary particularly difficult to understand and the words always fit of course. This author’s didn’t. I am sorry to see the series end this way.

[Helene · Rating 4 out of 5]

Another puzzle solved by Nero Wolfe with the support of Archie and other regulars.

A missing heiress - Wolfe is hired by her friend and by her fiancé to find her. The heiress left no notes, no messages with any friends but took only an overnight bag with her.

Then there is the estranged half-brother, gambling addict who has run through his inheritance - is he the reason?

The case, of course, is solved in Wolfe's brownstone after several months of interviews, surveillance, meetings and travel. Clues are revealed along the way but it takes Wolfe to put them together.

[Jcallen66 · Rating 2 out of 5]

Poor substitute for Rex Stout

Plot was weak, the cognitive dissonance involved bc writer was unfamiliar w Nero Wolfe and stories was irritating. Orrie Cather betrayed Wolfe et al and died, Felix and Wolfe planned the menus a week in advance, Archie seems to have taken on a suspiciously feminine way of speaking and conversations were padded w nonsense. No suspense, not thought provoking:(

[Charles · Rating 1 out of 5]

Worst one of this series that I have read. The mystery is very thin, the dialogue is forced, Wolfe does not "sound" like the Wolfe of Rex Stout books. Every time a character uses a three syllable word the author has some other character ask if he learned the big vocabulary words from Wolfe. He uses the same like multiple times to the point of annoyance, besides the fact that the words are SAT level words that are not that obscure. Really disappointed in this one.

[Ann Schaible · Rating 1 out of 5]

Totally agree with Brad Ost a few reviews back. I have read all of the Nero Wolfe books 3 times, some 4 times. Mr. Goldsborough hasn't read any. I try SO hard to like his books but I haven't any idea who he's writing about. No sense of pacing and embarrassing dialog. I do cringe. I started the Missing heiress with my fingers crossed but can't seem to turn the pages after 15 pgs. Mr G, I'm sure you're own books are better. Leave these to the rightful writer.

[Nancy · Rating 3 out of 5]

Nero Wolfe’s adventures continue with Goldsborough

I am a rabid fan of Rex Stout’s Nero Wolfe novels. And, many of goldsborough’s continuation of Wolfe and Archie’s adventures are very good.

This one was less satisfying for me. It took a while to find its rhythm, and initially the dialogue between Archie and Lily Rowan sounded “ off” to me. It was an adequate addition to the series, but far from Goldsborough’s best efforts.

[John C. · Rating 5 out of 5]

I’m always glad to read a new Nero Wolfe novel.

I was introduced to Rex Stout’s Nero Wolfe over 50 years ago and he’s become like an old friend. I have been waiting for this latest Robert Goldsborough Novel for months, and was not disappointed. In fact, I stayed up all night so I could finish it. I hope Mr. Goldsborough will continue the series.

[Nancy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good story and lots of characters who could have done the deed, at least the more horrific deed. Some of this was obvious. I still can't get my head around the difference between Stout's Nero Wolfe and Goldsborough's. Reading Stout's books, I never felt there was repetition. With Goldsborough's versions, I do. Still, I love Archie and Nero and the rest of the crew so I keep reading.

[Bmj2k · Rating 4 out of 5]

A huge upgrade from the last 5 or so books. This had none of the flaws of the previous books, namely a constant repetition of facts and suspects, and an almost clockwork-like series of events (like calling Lon Cohen every five pages.) This is a nice rebound and a return to form that makes me hopeful for the next book. A large role for Lily Rowan was welcome as well.

[Eileen Joyce-Donovan · Rating 3 out of 5]

I liked it but the fact that the author did not use any contractions distracted me. The language seemed very stilted and not like dialogue that people would actually speak. Maybe that's the way the original Nero Wolfe books were written, but I think the book would have been better if the characters sounde true to life.

[Amy · Rating 4 out of 5]

While I have greatly appreciated and enjoyed Goldsborough’s continuation of the Nero Wolfe stories, It seems to me that the quality has deteriorated in the last few books. There are mistakes and inconsistencies that spoil my enjoyment somewhat. It’s a shame no one edited or proofread these books.

[Tom Donald · Rating 1 out of 5]

Very poor

No interesting scenes, next to no Nero Wolfe, and dialogue that never rises above endless, witless, banter. Mr Goldsborough always tells, never shows. This is mere recycling of characters with only the most superficial resemblance to those created by the truly great Rex Stout. I grieve for the damage to his reputation that this stuff may incidentally cause.

[Amber Brown · Rating 2 out of 5]

I've never heard of this series and didn't realize it was one until I saw some of the other reviews but this book is not good. Stopped reading at page 20. The writing is so mechanical and unnatural. Don't bother.

[Collin · Rating 5 out of 5]

I very much enjoyed The Missing Heiress. The plot was engaging and the multiple investigations that ended up relating to one another were exciting. The reveal of the missing person and the solving of the murder were interesting. Another good read by Robert Goldsborough.

[Thad Allen · Rating 4 out of 5]

As always Mr. Goldsborough does a good job with Rex Stout's characters.

[P. · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good read.