Holmes on the Range (Holmes on the Range Mysteries)
Holmes on the Range (Holmes on the Range Mysteries) book cover

Holmes on the Range (Holmes on the Range Mysteries)

Hardcover – February 7, 2006

by
Price
$6.17
Format
Hardcover
Pages
304
Publisher
Minotaur Books
Publication Date
ISBN-13
978-0312347802
Dimensions
6.35 x 1.15 x 9.42 inches
Weight
1.26 pounds

Description

From Publishers Weekly 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 . Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. From Booklist *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 "If you've ever wondered just what Sherlock Holmes got up to during the Great Hiatus after his tumble off the Reichenbach Falls, wonder no more: His animating spirit took up residence in the brain of an illiterate cowpoke in the American West. Sounds unlikely? Sure, but whether because of the innate dignity of the characters or the admirable cleverness of their speech, Holmes on the Range works beautifully." --Laurie R. King, author of the New York Times bestselling Mary Russell/ Shelock Homes novels "Holmes on the Range is a wonderful debut novel! Detecting cowboys Big Red and Old Red Amlingmeyer are delightful, and in this humorous, action-packed tale they encounter enough baffling clues to stump Sherlock Holmes himself."--Marcia Muller, national bestselling author of The Dangerous Hour "What a cool and entertaining idea, not to mention well-written and fast-paced. I'm ready for more." --Joe R. Lansdale, author of Sunset and Sawdust "Steve Hockensmith has ingeniously worked a new riff on Sherlock Holmes, one as unlikely as it proves inspired. His ranchery and his talk are persuasive; his cowpoke Holmes a distinct and charming addition to the genre." --Nicholas Meyer, author of the New York Times bestseller The Seven-Per-Cent Solution "A whole lot of sly and clever fun, mixing the genres of the mystery and the Western so skillfully that fans of both forms will like it. I liked it so much I can't wait for the next one!"--Ed Gorman, author of the Sam McCain mysteries 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. Read more

Features & Highlights

  • 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.

Customer Reviews

Rating Breakdown

★★★★★
30%
(354)
★★★★
25%
(295)
★★★
15%
(177)
★★
7%
(83)
★
23%
(271)

Most Helpful Reviews

✓ Verified Purchase

Sherlock Holmes inspired Old West mystery

Steve Hockensmith's debut novel "Holmes on the Range" is an amusing Conan Doyle inspired mystery set in the untamed frontier of 1893 Montana. The book chronicles the exploits of the Amlingmeyer brothers Gustav and Otto, known as Old Red and Big Red. The brothers were itinerant cowboys, a result of a series of tragedies that wiped out their entire German immigrant family in rural Kansas. Before flood waters and smallpox decimated the Amlingmeyer family, the illiterate Gustav set out to make a living as a cow puncher. The younger Otto, the narrator of this tale, received some education and worked as a granary clerk. A resulting flood wiped out the whole family, save Otto, who joined up with his brother on the range.

They were currently employed as dollar a day cowhands on the Bar VR cattle ranch in Montana. When they accidently came across the apparently stampeded body of what was believed to be the ranch manager named Perkins, curiosity got the better of them. Gustav, a huge fan of Sherlock Holmes, began to investigate the death in typical Holmes fashion looking for clues.

The ranch was now being run by a pair of unsavory and underhanded brothers the McPhersons, Uly and Spider. The ranch soon became the locus of a new wider array of suspects into the strange occurrences at the ranch. The owner of the ranch, the English Duke of Balmoral arrived with his entourage just days after the unfortunate demise of the manager Perkins. This arrival was soon followed by the shooting death of top ranch hand Boudreaux, an albino Negro, under some very queer circumstances.

Old Red (Gustav) aided by Big Red (Otto) were allowed to shirk their ranch duties by the Duke in order to investigate the crimes. The Duke, an inveterate gambler had as his motivation, a 200 pound wager he made with his young associate Brackwell, son of an English earl. The Duke bet that Old Red and Big Red couldn't provide a plausible explanation for the mysterious deaths before the arrival of the authorities.

Using Holmesian deductive reasoning the Amlingmeyer brothers eventually found the answers to the mysteries on the Bar VR ranch. Author Hockensmith has a bright future should he continue to write about the exploits of Old Red and Big Red.
11 people found this helpful
✓ Verified Purchase

When will the next one come out?

What a fun and fast-paced mystery this novel presents! It offers such a blend of genres that you might think combining them would be difficult, but Hockensmith manages the mix with a deft hand. He is a little prone to telling rather than showing, but one might lay the blame for this mistake on his narrator, a cowboy new to the writing habit. The protagonists are engaging, but the colorful background characters really make the novel move. As a Holmes connected novel, this book resembles the well-reviewed Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time more than a mere pastiche, and, if you like the one, you will probably the enjoy the other, too.

This would make great summer reading for anyone who enjoys westerns, mysteries, comic novels or Holmes-inspired fiction. I want Hockensmith to write more Big Red and Little Red novels soon!
5 people found this helpful
✓ Verified Purchase

Holmes rides again

Well worth reading -- snappy, well-paced, and a good mystery that only Holmes -- transmogrified into an illiterate cowboy -- could solve.

This is the type of Holmes story that continues to work in the 21st century: part pastiche, part tounge-in-cheek, and with a dash of Raymond Chanler.

I expect (and hope) to see further adventures of the Amlingmeyers of the Plains.
4 people found this helpful
✓ Verified Purchase

An American Original Good Read !

What a fun book! And a clever idea well done: two cowpoke brothers as Watson and Holmes in the old west! :)

Owen Wister (The Virginian) and Conan Doyle (Study in Scarlet) come together in an American original. Cowboy brothers reprise Watson and Holmes solving two murders, one by gun and one by cattle stampede no less.

All the classic western elements are there: English owners, scurvy outlaw foreman, and the bunkhouse gang. What kept this tale moving was the narrative by "Big Red" (the Watson) seeing his brother emerge from being a "hand" (cowhand) to being a "mind" (detective) working out a truly intricate plot.

Quite moving really and a heckuva good read!
4 people found this helpful
✓ Verified Purchase

better

I really liked the premise of the book--a cowboy trying to be like Sherlock Holmes. Now the plot was mostly pretty good, & funny as well, but I was put off by 2 things:

1-- The branding episode never had any repercussions.

2-- Sherlock being real. I read the 1st half of the book thinking it was just a misunderstanding that the brothers didn't know that Holmes was a fictional character, as was Dr Watson. However, the book apparently was written about a parallel universe where they WERE real.
3 people found this helpful
✓ Verified Purchase

Laughed Out Loud CONTINUOUSLY

I enjoyed this book so much, I bought it for my father for Christmas. Steven Hochensmith is a master storyteller, and has single handedly made me believe in Westerns again. As my title indicates, this is laugh out loud funny. (I've also been lucky enough to read an advance copy of Hockensmith's follow-up ON THE WRONG TRACK. If possible, it's even better and funnier.)

A great book to get you out of the rut of reading the same old thing over and over.
3 people found this helpful
✓ Verified Purchase

Holmes with a colorful, humorous, Wild West difference

As if there weren't enough Sherlock spin-offs out there, here comes a good one, riding out of the Wild West. Hockensmith's clever and humorous debut novel (he has written a number of short stories featuring this duo) introduces the Amlingmeyer brothers, Old Red and Big Red, out of work cowboys who take on a temporary job that soon involves more detecting than is healthy for either of them.

Gustav, Old Red, went to work so his younger brother, Otto, could get educated. With one thing and another their entire family was lost and Otto, now well read, joined his brother on the Montana range. Gustav is illiterate but that doesn't stop him recognizing his real vocation the minute Otto reads him a Sherlock Holmes story.

Their new job furnishes him plenty of opportunity for practice, what with the secretive, thuggish range bosses and the gory death of the ranch manager in a cattle stampede. The absentee aristocratic English owners show up for a visit and the culture shock involves sneering disdain on both sides as well as murder and clandestine maneuvering.

Big Red's narration is as funny and rowdy and clueless as the original Watson's is reserved and conventional and clueless and Gustav's lack of book learning underscores his natural intellect. This is a romp of a read, which suffers only mildly from flagging energy towards the end. Carried along by the spirited writing, most readers will overlook this. Hockensmith has penned himself a winning team.

--Portsmouth Herald
3 people found this helpful
✓ Verified Purchase

Original and Fresh Addition to Sherlock tradition

Great story and incredible use of western/cowboy lingo. Fun, exciting, and with two main characters that will quickly become one of your favorites. Wonderful addition to the Sherlock tradition that has been plagued in recent times with little imagination, borishness, and little for fans to get excited about.

Can't wait for future feed in what I hope will become a long series.
3 people found this helpful
✓ Verified Purchase

A Study in Sagebrush

At last, Steve Hockensmith has given lovers of both the "traditional" English country house mystery and of action in the wide-open spaces of the American West their first real taste of these two great tastes that go great together since Sir Arthur himself did it with "A Study in Scarlet." The allusion above is not intended to be tongue-in-cheek. Rather, it's meant as an expression of admiration for a writer who has taken something old and made it new again, turning the phrase, "imitation is the sincerest form of flattery" completely on its ear.

Steve Hockensmith's Amlingmeyer brothers aren't just Holmes and Watson duded up like Hopalong Cassidy (that dubious and hilarious distinction is left for another of the characters in this first novel) and dropped into a scene in Next-To-Nowhere, Nevada. Mr. Hockensmith has done his homework, and these two brothers, in addition to the other hands on the Cantlemere Ranche are the genuine item: *cowboys*.

What Mr. Hockensmith has done is neither pastiche, nor outright thievery. Rather, this is a tribute, a loving homage not just to Doyle, but to early writers of Western literature such as Bret Harte, Owen Wister, Max Brand, Zane Grey, and others.

What makes this book unique though, is the original voice in which Mr. Hockensmith chooses to tell his tale. Otto Amlingmeyer, while every bit a strapping late-19th century American plains-dweller, takes you by the elbow and walks you through his story, mixing homilies, metaphores and similes in the course of telling it in such a manner that in the hands of a lesser craftsman, might ring false, even cliched. Not so with Hockensmith's work. On the contrary, the realism of Otto's speech and descriptions is a large portion of what gives this book its zest.

There's more, though. Mix in a plot that lopes along at a goodly pace, an English peer and his hangers-on practicing their own distinctive brand of class consciousness (which contrasts interestingly with the native-born racism of at least one of the other cowhands on the Cantlemere), a resultant bit of 19th century class warfare, a pair of villains who smell as badly as they act, a direct tie-in with one Holmes story, and oblique references to several others, and you've got one whopping good, highly recommended, read.

So move over, Doyle, Harte, Wister, Brand and Grey. There's a new sheriff in town. I for one can't wait for his next installment.
3 people found this helpful
✓ Verified Purchase

Great Holmes imitation, but oh, that title!

I'm sure Steve Hockensmith could've come up with a better title than "Holmes on the Range". It's really a terrible pun, but that doesn't distract from the story he's telling.

Gustav "Old Red" and Otto "Big Red" Amlingmeyer sign on as hired hands of a sort at the Bar VR ranch somewhere in Montana near the end of the 19th century, where it becomes more than obvious that there's something funny going on. Old Red has become a fan of Sherlock Holmes after hearing his brother read him some of the Holmes stories (Old Red is illiterate) and decides to emulate his hero by, in his words, deducifyin' what's going on at the ranch.

The deducifyin' is worthy of the great man himself, although Old Red is not an exact imitation of Holmes. No one could be - Holmes was, emotionally speaking, a virtual automaton, and Old Red shows more signs of humanity than Holmes ever did. I was completely bamboozled right up until the end and look forward to reading more about Gustav and Otto (who is, by the way, nothing like Watson, save that he's the narrator of this tale and acts as the intellectual foil for Gustav, just as Watson did for Holmes).

The supporting characters are interesting as well. The McPherson brothers were properly villainous and would have fit right into "A Study in Scarlet" or "The Valley of Fear". And I also like how Hockensmith borrowed from the tale of "The Noble Bachelor" to bring in the characters of the Duke of Balmoral and his entourage.

I was, however, somewhat disappointed by the rest of the so-called "Hornet's Nesters" who shared quarters with Big Red and Old Red. They kind of reminded me of stock characters in the old Western movies and with one exception didn't really seem to serve much purpose in the story.

The jacket of this book mentions that Hockensmith has written some short stories about Old Red and Big Red that appear in Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine. I think I'll see if I can find some of those stories.
2 people found this helpful

Related Books