Holmes on the Range

Starred review from November 7, 2005
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
. Author tour.

Starred review from November 1, 2005
Cross-genre fiction can be a lot of fun when it works. This first novel will keep both mystery fans and afficionados of Westerns grinning from the first page to the last. Two German cowboy brothers, Gustav ( -Old Red -) and Otto ( -Big Red -) Amlingmeyer, have been reading the adventures of Sherlock Holmes in magazines and take on the roles of the master detective and his sidekick, Watson, when an albino cowboy turns up dead in a locked outhouse. They have only 24 hours to solve a case that involves a blustery English lord, a fraudulent cattle scheme, some black-hatted bad guys, and a cannibalistic mountain man named Bob. Mix Big Red's earthy cowboy narrative and Old Red's deductive abilities with plenty of action, including cattle stampedes, a prairie ambush, and a six-gun showdown finale, and the result is highly recommended for all mystery and Western collections. Hockensmith, whose short stories featuring Big Red and Old Red appear in "Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine", lives in Petaluma, CA. [See Prepub Alert, "LJ "10/1/05.]" -Ken St. Andre, Phoenix P.L. "

Copyright 2005 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

Starred review from July 10, 2006
Award-winning narrator William Dufris gives a virtuoso performance on this enormously entertaining tale of Gustave "Old Red" Amlingmeyer, a Montana cowboy who dreams of being a western Sherlock Holmes. When mysterious murders occur on the ranch where he and his brother are working, Old Red sees his chance and immediately sets out to sniff out the culprit. The story is told in first person by the would-be detective's kid brother, Otto ("Big Red"), and with an authentic western drawl Dufris slips into the role as comfortably as an old pair of cowboy boots, conveying Big Red's amiability and frequent befuddlement as he struggles to keep up with his older brother's "deducifyin' ". Dufris creates believable, distinctive voices for a large and colorful cast—among them the gravel-voiced ranch foreman, a Cockney cowboy, a pompous English duke and his ladylike daughter and a Swedish cook—and does it so well that a listener might well believe he's listening to a full troupe of actors. A truly gifted narrator, memorable characters and a tale full of adventure and humor—what more could an audiobook fan ask for? Simultaneous release with the St. Martin's Minotaur hardcover (Reviews, Nov. 7).