Holmes on the Range (Holmes on the Range Mysteries) - Hardcover

Hockensmith, Steve

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0312347804 ISBN 13: 9780312347802

Publisher: Minotaur Books, 2006

Synopsis

Because 1893 is a tough year in Montana, any job is a good job. When Big Red and Old Red Amlingmeyer sign on as ranch hands at the secretive Bar VR cattle spread, they're not expecting much more than hard work, bad pay, and a comfortable campfire around which they can enjoy their favorite pastime: scouring Harper's Weekly for stories about the famous Sherlock Holmes.

When the boys come across a dead body that looks a whole lot like the leftovers of an unfortunate encounter with a cattle stampede, Old Red sees the perfect opportunity to employ his Holmes-inspired deducifyin' skills. Putting his ranch work squarely on the back burner, he sets out to solve the case. Big Red, like it or not (and mostly he does not), is along for the wild ride in this clever, compelling, and completely one-of-a-kind mystery.

About this title

About the Author

Steve Hockensmith writes a monthly column for Alfred Hitchcock's Mystery Magazine, and stories featuring Big Red and Old Red appear regularly in Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine. He has been a finalist for the Shamus Award for his short-story writing. Holmes on the Range is his first novel.

Reviews

Starred Review. Sherlockians, western fans and mystery lovers who enjoy their whodunits leavened with humor should all be delighted by Hockensmith's captivating debut, which features Montana cowboys and brothers Gustav and Otto Amlingmeyer (better known as Old Red and Big Red, respectively). One night in 1892, Old Red becomes smitten with Sherlock Holmes on hearing his brother read "The Red-Headed League" around the campfire during a cattle drive. Determined to follow in his hero's footsteps, Old Red gets the chance to apply the master's methods after some unsavory characters hire the pair to work at a ranch, whose general manager is soon found dead after a stampede. Another man turns up dead, apparently a suicide, just before the British aristocrats who own the ranch arrive to inspect their property. The melding of genres will remind some of the late Bill DeAndrea's western Nero Wolfe pastiches, while the skillful plotting and characterization augur well for the sequel. Hockensmith writes a monthly column for Alfred Hitchcock's Mystery Magazine.
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*Starred Review* The Amlingmeyer brothers--Big Red, our narrator, and Old Red--grabbed a job at the mysterious Bar-VR Ranch to avoid a winter without food or money. One of the hands at the ranch is found with a bullet in his brain and another ends up seemingly trampled, but no one can recall a stampede. The shadowy miscreants had best watch their backs, however, as the Amlingmeyers are not your ordinary cowpokes. Old Red can't read but has been entertained trailside by Big Red's reading Sherlock Holmes stories from Harper's Weekly. Old Red thus considers himself a budding master of what he calls "deducifyin'." With Old Red as a six-gun Holmes and Big Red as a skeptical, nervous Watson, the pair ferrets out the killers and motives from a colorful cast of characters with names such as Puddin-Foot, Tall John, and Swivel-Eye. The Amlingmeyers have graced the pages of Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine, and their initial book-length case is every bit as memorable. At times, they may remind readers of Joe Lansdale's Hap Collins and Leonard Pine with their smart mouths, penchant for trouble, and unflagging loyalty to each other. This is a great reworking of the Holmes conceit, and one suspects Hockensmith will have a steady readership as long as the Amlingmeyers are on the case. Wes Lukowsky
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

Edition details

• Publisher: Minotaur Books
• Publication date: 2006
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0312347804
• ISBN 13: 9780312347802
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 304