Some Buried Caesar (1939)

Some Buried Caesar is a detective novel by American writer Rex Stout, the sixth book featuring his character Nero Wolfe. The story first appeared in abridged form in The American Magazine (December 1938), under the title "The Red Bull", it was first published as a novel by Farrar & Rinehart in 1939. In 2000 it was included in the list of the 100 Favorite Mysteries of the Century by the Independent Mystery Booksellers Association.

Title

The book's title is from The Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam, originally written in Persian and translated to English in 1859, and published often since that year. The short phrase is in this quatrain, part of which is in the text in Chapter 12:

I sometimes think that never blows so red

The Rose as where some buried Caesar bled;

That every Hyacinth the Garden wears

Dropped in her Lap from some once lovely Head.

Plot summary

While on their way to a rural exposition in upstate New York to show orchids, Nero Wolfe and Archie Goodwin are involved in a minor car accident. Walking to a nearby house to phone for help, they are threatened by a large bull. They meet Caroline Pratt, a local golf champion, and her acquaintance Lily Rowan, who see Archie escape over the fence. Lily calls him Escamillo, name of the toreador in the opera Carmen. Caroline then gets her car to rescue Wolfe. The house and bull belong to Thomas Pratt, Caroline's uncle and the owner of a large chain of successful fast food restaurants. Pratt owns the champion Guernsey bull called Hickory Caesar Grindon to use in a publicity stunt where barbecued bull will be the dish served.

Wolfe and Archie meet several of Pratt's family and neighbors—Jimmy Pratt, Pratt's nephew; Monte McMillan, the original owner of Caesar, who sold the bull to Pratt after falling into financial difficulties; Clyde Osgood and his sister Nancy, the children of Pratt's neighbor Frederick Osgood; and a New Yorker named Howard Bronson, who is with Clyde. There is tension between the Pratt and Osgood families due to a bitter rivalry between Thomas Pratt and Frederick Osgood. When tempers flare, Clyde makes a bet with Pratt that the latter will not barbecue Caesar. As Pratt is already paranoid due to the hostility of local farmers opposed to his plans to cook Caesar, Wolfe offers Archie's services as a guard for Caesar in exchange for a stay at Pratt's house while the car is repaired. During his watch that night, Lily Rowan shows up; together they see Clyde's body, gored to death in the pasture.

The local authorities assume that Clyde was gored by Caesar during an attempt to sabotage Pratt's plans, but Wolfe believes that Clyde is murdered. The bull's face was cleaner than it would have been had he fatally attacked Clyde. Frederick Osgood hires Wolfe, knowing his son to be experienced with cattle. Wolfe and Archie stay at the Osgood home. Caroline Pratt hires Archie to prevent what she believes to be Lily Rowan's attempts to seduce her brother Jimmy.

In a meeting with Waddell, the local district attorney, Wolfe says that the murder weapon was a digging pick lying nearby. The murderer dragged the unconscious Clyde into the paddock, then used the pick. Waddell, who has a petty rivalry with the elder Osgood, is skeptical but agrees to reopen the investigation. Very soon, news comes that Caesar has died suddenly of anthrax. To prevent anthrax spreading, the bull is cremated. Archie tries to photograph the bull, but arrives too late to document that evidence.

While interviewing Nancy Osgood, Wolfe learns that Bronson is a New York loan shark who is with Clyde to ensure he receives $10,000 that Clyde owes him. When confronted by Wolfe and Archie, Bronson confirms this, but is vague and unhelpful when questioned regarding Clyde's death, keeping him under suspicion. Out of respect for Nancy Osgood, Archie recovers the promissory note Bronson holds by force, and Wolfe warns the loan shark to be careful.

The next day, Wolfe's orchids win numerous prizes at the exposition, defeating a rival in the process. While seeking Mr. Bennet of the cattle association, Archie discovers Jimmy Pratt and Nancy Osgood in a secret rendezvous; the two are lovers, in a relationship secret from their feuding elders. Also by chance, during their confrontation Archie stumbles upon the body of Howard Bronson, gored with a pitchfork and hidden under straw. He conceals the body and returns to Wolfe with the news. When the body is discovered, police Captain Barrow detains Archie, and imprisons him as a material witness when he refuses to reveal what he knows.

The next day, Wolfe secures Archie's release with the promise that he knows who the murderer is and will soon expose him to the authorities. To Archie, Wolfe admits that he knows the murderer's identity, but the evidence to prove it has been destroyed. Based on his memory and official records from the local cattle authorities, Wolfe draws some sketches of the bull that he and Archie saw and uses them to confront Monte McMillan. Wolfe deduces that the bull that Thomas Pratt purchased and intended to barbecue was not Caesar. The champion bull was killed in an anthrax outbreak that killed almost all of McMillan's herd. The bull that was sold as Caesar was Hickory Buckingham Pell, a similar but inferior bull. Facing financial ruin, McMillan offers the bull for an outrageous sum, which Pratt pays. Clyde realizes the deception, given his experience with cattle, and relies on that knowledge to win his bet. McMillan murders Clyde to silence him, and later kills Bronson when the loan shark tries to blackmail him.