On the Wrong Track: A Holmes on the Range Mystery [Hardcover]

Pardner, you need to mosey on down to the tradin' post and rustle yerself up a heap o' Steve Hockensmith.

I read _On the Wrong Track_ first, then *immediately* ran out and bought _Holmes on the Range_. The first one has more deductifyin', the second has more action. It'd be a little better to read them in order, but whatever--the important thing is to read them. These books are

* Laugh-out-loud funny

* Imaginative

* Colorful

* Fast-paced

* With a great cast of characters

* And interesting settings

And they're pretty darn good mysteries, to boot!

You could argue that both books are a wee bit more complicated than they really need to be. As a result, the villains have to do some speechifyin' in the denouements to explain themselves--a hoary tradition of the mystery, and therefore entirely forgivable. That's just about the only flaw I could identify in either volume.

It's rare to find a truly original voice in any kind of fiction, and particularly so in such a stylized genre as the mystery. Hockensmith qualifies in spades. I'll be grabbing the next book in the series as soon as it appears.

This is the second book in the series. I started with the first, Holmes on the Range (Holmes on the Range Mysteries)and recommend that you do too. While it works fine to start with this one, if you take them in order you will get the "origin" story straight, and there are a few allusions in the second book that will make more sense. Since after you read one you will surely want to read the other, you might as well take them in order.

I'm a Sherlock Holmes fan, if not a fanatic, and immediately fell in love with the premise of this series---a cowboy in the Old West reads about Sherlock Holmes and aspires to be like him. The Old West provides a fresh and fertile landscape as the setting for a Holmes style mystery. And the combination of these two great myths and genres holds obvious promise. An inspired choice. The author executes this concept with worthy aplomb and by this second book the characters are our endearing old friends.

After all, the joy of being a Holmes fan is only partly in the patented Holmes deductions, and only partly (and even less) in the mysteries themselves. The great joy comes in the characters, whose foibles become as familiar and comfortable to the reader as Holmes' slippers and pipe became to the Great Detective. And just so with Holmes' many successful descendants such as Hercule Poirot and Nero Wolfe.

The heroes in this series hew closer to the Holmes model than Poirot and Wolfe, but are admirably colorful and likeable in their own right. "Big Red," who assumes Watson's narrator role, is more of an independant character than Watson, and he spins out the yarn with steady doses of both suspense and humor. You'll keeping turning the pages eagerly with a broad grin on your face.

If anything, this second book slightly surpasses the first---introducing some more interesting secondary characters. My 12-year old son and I eagerly await number three.

Starting shortly after the incident in Holmes on the Range, in On the Wrong Track we find the Amlingmeyer brothers trying to find work where Gustav can use his investigating skills to fight crime. When we join the story, they've used most of the cash savings and been laughed at in most of the places they've asked about employment. However, a chance meeting with a down and out drunk who turns out to be Burl Lockhart, famous in many a penny dreadful, sets them off to become railroad detectives for Southern Pacific. Will this be the chance they need to see Gustav's dream come true or just another chance to fail?

There's some problems right at the beginning. You see Amlingmeyer's don't use trains because their cattlemen and the railroads are ruining the West, or at least that's why Otto always thought they didn't take trains. Gustav has a secret. He's ashamed to admit but any reader will figure it out by chapter two -- he gets train sick. Now the whole train thing and the fact that they're low on funds has Otto rethinking his relationship with Gustav. Gustav wants to be a detective and we saw in the first book that he really has a flair for it. He wants Otto to be his Watson and write up his stories. Otto has written the first adventure up but he refuses to send it off -- mainly because if you don't send it, it can't be rejected.

There's enough red herrings and misdirection to get a train on a track lost. But it's not confusing to the reader. Hockensmith sets us a tidy mystery with train robbers, drunk Pinkerton officials, officious train personnel, and some very strange and strangely acting passengers. And through it all we have the brothers who have to come to terms with the new changes in their relationship. Otto is the youngest but he's the one who can read. Gustav is rich in common sense and abilities but he's ridden the range for years and took on being father and brother to Otto when the family died in a flash flood years ago. Now they're equals and that is changing some of the dynamics in their relationship. And this is all coming on top of a mystery that looks like it could get them killed six ways from Sunday if they aren't careful.

This is a much richer book than Holmes on the Range, the characters were well drawn and believable in the first book but now they just crackle with energy, causing you, the reader, to worry about them and what they will do next. I found myself getting angry with the train personnel and passengers when they diss'd my guys. I like Otto and Gustav -- they're good people and I hope to read many more stories about their adventures. I just hope the next one lets me catch my breath between mishaps and near misses.

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