The Black Dove

Bought this for my husband. He listens to the book on the way to work. He loved Steve Hockensmith and looks forward to more audiobooks by him.

I know this sounds odd--but if you love Sherlock Holmes and you love westerns--you will appreciate Steve Hockensmith's series about the Amlingmeyer brothers. These are so immaginative and unique. Thoroughly entertaining--there are no words superlative enough for this series.

This is the third in the series, and clearly the best and most complicated "mystery" of the three. Mind you, it all made sense when the strings were pulled together and made a satisfying whole. There is less of the Holmesian homage in this book than in the previous two, but still enough to give the hard-core Holmes fans a good handhold. Fast-paced and very entertaining. Highly recommended.

In 1893 brothers Old Red and Big Red Amlingmeyer recover from their work as rail cops (see ON THE WRONG TRACK) by visiting San Francisco in order to partake of some of the city's world renowned wickedness as well as look into a personal matter. When they worked as railroad cops, the luggage of the late Dr. Chan was tossed off the train that was their beat. Knowing their hero would investigate, the siblings emulate HOLMES ON THE RANGE; albeit this time Holmes in San Francisco to determine who killed Dr. Chan and why. Joining them is former railroad sleuth Diane Corvus, who also has a personal reason to learn the truth. The Reds assume that hired Chinese "highbinders" killed Chan, but the clues take them everywhere in the City by the Bay not just Chinatown. With local police and Chinatown's "Napoleon of Crime" assisting them Old Red and Big Red land in whorehouses where they are a bit distracted, but with Diane and Napoleon coaxing them, their escapades lead everyone into a final confrontation in which being shanghaied appears to have a greater life expectancy. The third Holmes on the Range historical mystery is another superb zany caper as the Red siblings land in one egg drop soup after another. The humorous story line is fast-paced especially when the heroes begin to follow clues that have more twists than Lombard St. Fans of the series will appreciate the Reds' escapades as Gaslight San Francisco comes to life as rarely seen in a whodunit with a terrific insane ending. Harriet Klausner

That Hockensmith feller looks like one of them galoots who ain't satisfied less'n he's doing something different with every book. And, dagnabit, that's a good thing--long as you're not one of those folks who just wants a heap of more of the same every time out. See, _Holmes on the Range_ was a flat-out classical mystery with a house full o' suspects. And _On the Wrong Track_ was a rollicking adventure/mystery with train robbers and runaway locomotives. Well, _The Black Dove_ is a tough-guy private eye mystery with a bit of moral ambiguity in it. Now maybe you're figuring that there's something a little cockeyed about a humorous Dashiell Hammett film noir Sherlock Holmes Wild West Chinatown gumshoe tall tale. Well, pardner, all I can say is: it works. Just don't expect no reruns of the other two books, plotwise. _The Black Dove_ sticks with the conventions of the shamus subgenre. The Amlingmeyer boys don't spend so much time eyeballing crime scenes or jawboning with witnesses or busting alibis or constructing timetables. Instead, the questions are: Who's got the power? Who's corrupt and who (if anyone) is straight? How can individuals stand up to powerful and ruthless groups? And that eternal classic, who wants them dead? Heck, there's even some genuine pathos in this one. (Anyone who reads my reviews regular-like--all both of you--will understand when I say that this here is a ball-of-twine plot, not a jigsaw-puzzle plot.) Which ain't to say that all the virtues of the prior tales are gone. Big Red and Old Red are still as fine and sassy a pair of saddle pals as a feller could ask for. Me being a sucker for clever deducifyin', I'm happy to report that there's some dandy logic-chopping as well--the delightful Miz Corvus gets in a particularly fine lick or two. There's enough Holmes references to keep the conceit lively. And, of course, the setting is a good one, well rendered. So what are you waiting for, ya darn greenhorn? Get a wiggle on, saddle up, and wrangle yourself a copy. And when you're done, you can join me in wondering: what in tarnation is Kid Hockensmith going to get up to next?