Some Buried Caesar
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| Author | Rex Stout |
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| Cover artist | Robert Graves |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Series | Nero Wolfe |
| Genre | Detective fiction |
| Publisher | Farrar & Rinehart |
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Publication date
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February 2, 1939 |
| Media type | Print (Hardcover) |
| Pages | 296 pp. (first edition) |
| OCLC | 18578644 |
| Preceded by | Too Many Cooks |
| Followed by | Over My Dead Body |
Some Buried Caesar is the sixth Nero Wolfe detective novel by Rex Stout. The story first appeared in abridged form in The American Magazine (December 1938), under the title "The Red Bull." It was first published in book form by Farrar & Rinehart in 1939. The novel is included in the omnibus volume All Aces, published in 1958 by the Viking Press.
We sat, the nephew and niece looking worried, Lily Rowan yawning, Pratt frowning. Wolfe heaved a sigh and emptied his glass.
Pratt muttered, "All the commotion."
Wolfe nodded. "Astonishing. About a bull. It might be thought you were going to cook him and eat him."
Pratt nodded. "I am. That's what's causing all the trouble."
On the way to an agricultural fair north of Manhattan, Wolfe's car runs into a tree, stranding Wolfe and Archie at the home of the owner of a chain of fast-food cafés. A neighbor is later found gored to death; the authorities rule the death an accident but Wolfe deduces that it was murder. Lily Rowan, Archie's longtime girlfriend, makes her first appearance.
This is one of several Wolfe plots that break one of Wolfe's cardinal rules, to never conduct business away from the Manhattan brownstone. It involves minor characters who appear in several other Wolfe novels, under different names and in different locales: the self-important police officer who tries to intimidate Archie, and the occasionally bumbling but politically attuned district attorney. The book's title is from The Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam.
Wolfe and Archie are on their way to show orchids at an exposition in rural New York when a tire of their car blows, causing a minor collision into a tree. Uninjured, they decide to walk to a nearby house to phone for help, but as they cross a nearby pasture they are threatened by a large bull. Archie runs for the fence to divert the bull, giving Wolfe time to climb to safety atop a large boulder. Wolfe is subsequently retrieved by car by Caroline Pratt, a local golf champion and the niece of Thomas Pratt, the owner of the nearby house and a large chain of successful fast food restaurants.
As they enjoy Pratt's hospitality, Wolfe and Archie meet Pratt's nephew Jimmy and Lily Rowan, a Manhattan socialite and friend of Jimmy's who takes a shine to Archie. After a tense confrontation with a representation from the Guernsey League, who are in town for the exhibition, Pratt reveals that as part of a publicity stunt for his restaurants he plans to barbecue the very bull that threatened Wolfe and Archie, which happens to be a champion Guernsey named Hickory Caesar Grindon. He has purchased Caesar for the then-fantastic price of $45,000 from a nearby stockman, Monte McMillan, who has recently suffered a downturn in his fortunes.
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