Some Buried Caesar (Nero Wolfe Mysteries) (Mass Market Paperback)

If you're interested in an audio edition, the unabridged narration by Michael Pritchard is good.

Some bad blood between Wolfe and another orchid fancier does what no fee could: Wolfe and Archie are on their way to the Exposition at Crowfield, so that Wolfe can exhibit some of his orchids and take prizes away from his rival. But just outside a ranch near Crowfield, one of the tires blows out at 55 MPH, and the car crashes into a tree. (It's worth picking up this book just to watch Wolfe's reaction to this, given his phobia about moving vehicles.)

Unfortunately, when they cut across a pasture en route to the house, they don't notice until it's too late (1) the farmhand guarding it with a shotgun, yelling at them to go back, and (2) Hickory Caesar Grindon, the prize bull (worth $45000 in 1936!) inside the pasture. On instructions from Wolfe, Archie gets to clear the fence (luring the bull away) while Wolfe takes up residence on a boulder until he can be rescued. (Do I need to mention that this is worth seeing?)

Introducing Lily Rowan, who ever after calls Archie 'Escamillo' after a bullfighter in _Carmen_. At least 5 people have motives to murder her: Clyde Osgood, who ruined himself after taking up with her (she's now dropped him); his father and sister, who blame Lily for Clyde's ruin; his ex-fiancee, Carolyn Pratt; and Carolyn's brother, who's just getting involved with Lily. As it happens, they're all guests or acquaintances of Tom Pratt, who built the ranch on his birthplace after getting rich running a chain of fast-food restaurants. He's throwing a barbecue in a few days, and bought Caesar as a publicity stunt, to serve as the main course.

The local cattle ranchers and stock hands think he's committing a monstrous crime against the Guernsey breed, and hold it against Monte McMillan for selling Caesar. (Monte takes umbrage; he doesn't like Caesar's fate, but none of those fine gentlemen offered him anything like a fair price for Caesar. The Depression and an anthrax epidemic in his herd have wiped him out.) So Monte pitches in to help guard Caesar from any possible do-gooders who might try to steal him. (On top of everything, Clyde has bet Tom Pratt $10000 that Caesar won't make it to the barbecue.) Wolfe signs Archie up to help, since the ranch is more comfortable than the hotel in Crowfield.

But Caesar isn't the first victim of sudden death. On Archie's watch, a dead man is found in Caesar's pasture, apparently gored by the bull. But Wolfe consoles Archie privately: Wolfe figured out that it was murder, and who, how, and why, before the doctor showed up. He doesn't spill any details, not wanting to be entangled in Crowfield, especially with no fee; but when the victim's family doesn't buy the goring theory, he takes the job.

Good stuff: what Wolfe will put up with while in search of a comfy chair; Archie and Wolfe tangling with the local law, who'd love to sweep this case under a rug; the various relationships between the self-made Pratt family and the old-money Osgoods; and the Exposition itself.