In his new historical mystery, Holmes on the
Range, Steve Hockensmith slyly tips his hat to Sir Arthur
Conan Doyle, whose 1887 novella, A Study in
Scarlet, introduced Sherlock Holmes to the world.
Both books feature a Western theme. In Doyle’s
melodramatic tale, a murder in London is linked to the history of
Mormon Utah. Hockensmith sets his story on the plains of eastern
Montana, circa 1892, writing with tall-tale-esque humor and respect
for the hard work of ranching. And his Montana, “a world of
sunshine and mud,” is a lot more convincing than Conan
Doyle’s lurid Utah.
The detectives in this case are
the Amlingmeyer brothers, red-headed cowboys in their 20s —
the narrator, Otto (Big Red) and his brother Gustav (Old Red). Big
Red plays Watson to Old Red, whose talent for “deducifying” is
spurred by the Holmes magazine stories he reads aloud — and
by the gory remains of the ranch manager, whose death-by-stampede
only appears accidental. The illiterate Big Red proves that brains
don’t depend on schooling, a sweet moral that his more
educated brother sums up: “You ain’t just a hand.
You’re a mind.”
The plot, involving the
aristocratic owners of the Bar VR, aka Cantlemere Ranche, may seem
improbable. But English lords did own ranches (that’s why
polo is played in Big Horn, Wyo., to this day) and a Russian grand
duke famously went buffalo hunting with George Armstrong Custer.
Like the cattalo — a buffalo/cow mix that surprises Big Red
into an impromptu rodeo act — the West is a curious hybrid.
So is Holmes on the Range, which blends the Western and detective
genres in a cheerful entertainment.
Holmes on
the Range
Steve Hockensmith
295
pages, hardcover: $22.95.
St. Martin’s Minotaur,
2006.
This article appeared in the print edition of the magazine with the headline Elementary, my dear cowpuncher.
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