Sherlock Holmes and the Rune Stone Mystery [Hardcover]

Larry Millett (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 1, 1999

A further eruption of American criminality draws the impeccably reinvented Sherlock Holmes into partnership with a brilliant and roguish mind

The numerous mystery fans and discerning Sherlockian experts who have been following "Watson's American chronicles" will be thrilled by the third manuscript to be "discovered": Sherlock Holmes and the Rune Stone Mystery. As the century winds down, Holmes's services are engaged by a personage no less than King Oskar II of Sweden, who proposes to purchase a mysterious stone dug up by a western Minnesota farmer. But before the celebrated detective can attempt to authenticate this fabulous find, the hapless farmer is murdered and his stone vanishes.

In this singular case Holmes's soaring imagination is complemented by the talent for "discreet investigations" first displayed by Irish saloonkeeper Shadwell Rafferty in Sherlock Holmes and the Ice Palace Murders. Rotund and rollicking, sharp as a St. Paul wind and tough as his own old leather boots, Rafferty accompanies the great detective through a maze of intrigue and villainy on a hunt for a rune stone, a murderer, and the archeological truth.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

For the third time (after, most recently, Sherlock Holmes and the Ice Palace Murders), Holmes and Watson make their way to Minnesota and team up with savvy St. Paul saloonkeeper and sometime detective Shadwell Rafferty. The year is 1899, and reports of the discovery of an ancient stone telling of Viking explorers coming to what is now Minnesota has caused an international stir. Sweden's King Oskar II wants the stone back in his country if it is genuine. As fate would have it, on the very day Holmes and Watson arrive, the farmer who uncovered the stone is murdered, "his skull split down the middle like a ripe watermelon," and the stone taken. The friendly rivalry between Rafferty and Holmes has evolved into almost a partnership. Millett handles Holmes and Watson well and is definitely in his comfort zone with Rafferty, a thoroughly engaging character. It doesn't matter if Holmes ever really came to Minnesota or if the Rune stone was genuine or fake. The way Millett tells the tale, readers will be happy to take his word for it. (Oct.)
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From School Library Journal

YA-Once again, Millett accurately re-creates the famous detective and his associate, Dr. John H. Watson, who narrates this fine mystery that's full of suspense, adventure, and colorful characters. Based on a true incident involving a stone with runic writing that was found in Minnesota in 1898, this story utilizes the same time and place. The story begins in London as King Oskar II of Sweden persuades Sherlock Holmes to investigate the authenticity of a Viking stone carving found on a western Minnesota farm. Holmes and Watson arrive in the states just as the farmer who made the discovery is killed and the stone is stolen. Many strange coincidences and a surprising villain complicate the case. The writing and plot are very much like Arthur Conan Doyle's stories, and fans will enjoy seeing the sleuths working together.
Linda A. Vretos, Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology, Alexandria, VA
Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 317 pages
• Publisher: Viking Adult; 1St Edition edition (October 1, 1999)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0670888214
• ISBN-13: 978-0670888214
• Product Dimensions: 9.4 x 6.3 x 1.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #474,325 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Favourite of Milletts 3 Holmes so far, March 24, 2000

By 

Brad Marchant - See all my reviews

This review is from: Sherlock Holmes and the Rune Stone Mystery (Hardcover)

I've read all three of Milletts Sherlock in Minnesota and this one was my favourite so far. I enjoy the interface of the refined Victorian detective with the quarks and characters of Minnesota. His stories have become progressively more fun to read. I really enjoy the addition of Rafferty to our crime fighting team.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Written in the Doyle Style, January 17, 2000

By 

Vizier (Springfield, MA USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Sherlock Holmes and the Rune Stone Mystery (Hardcover)

This is the third in the "Sherlock Holmes in Minnesota" saga and it follows the others in style and story. If you are a lover of the Holmes genre and gobble up what you can of the pastiches being offered by so many today, you are either gravely disappointed or surprisingly gratified. The story must capture the spirit of Holmes and Watson so brilliantly done by Doyle many years ago. The key to all such imitations is, of course, style of writing. Millett has suceeded in capturing Doyle's style. I find little fault in the way Watson or Holmes utter their dialogue. This is what makes me feel at home with a pastiche. It is the Holmes and Watson you recognize from the "canon". Millett has done his homework, has provided an acceptable story line and entertains us with this book.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Third successful case in Minnesota for Holmes and Millett, October 28, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Sherlock Holmes and the Rune Stone Mystery (Hardcover)

Some readers of Larry Millett's Sherlock Holmes in Minnesota series (Sherlock Holmes and the Red Demon, 1996 and Sherlock Holmes and the Ice Palace Murders, 1998) might be skeptical that events described in these books actually occurred. So it is fitting, and with a certain amount of irony, that Holmes' third case in Minnesota surrounds the discovery of a rune stone describing how Norse explorers came to what is now northwestern Minnesota in 1362. This is, of course a very thinly veiled Kensington Rune Stone "a highly disputed artifact since the day it was unearthed," says Millett in his afterword. Next to publishing Holmes's cases (they were written by Holmes' companion Dr. John Watson) Milllett, writer and editor at the St. Paul Pioneer Press) is best known for his books and articles on the architectural history of Minneapolis and St. Paul.

It is March 1899. Millett adeptly captures the familiar opening of many of Holmes' cases: a cozy scene in the sitting rooms of 221B Baker Street and Holmes lamenting the dearth of inspiring crime. Indeed Millett's Holmes has come to sound eerily like the Holmes of Conan Doyle: "I am a ship without a rudder adrift on an empty sea. The criminals of London, it would seem, have suffered a collective failure of the imagination, for which I must pay the price."

Fortuitously arriving on this scene is an agent for King Oskar II of Sweden. Upon hearing of the amazing discovery of a rune stone depicting Viking explorers in North America predating Christopher Columbus, Oskar decided that the stone should be brought to Sweden. At his behest Holmes is to find proof "that the stone itself cannot under any circumstances be a modern forgery." Though the prospect of another trip to Minnesota is "hardly pleasing" to Watson, he and Holmes agree to investigate.

As fate would have it, the farmer who discovered the stone is murdered, "his skull split down the middle like a ripe watermelon", and the stone stolen the very day Holmes and Watson arrive. By happy coincidence, (and as Holmes remarks, "Coincidence the tribute reason must occasionally pay to fate."), Shadwell Rafferty, barkeeper, sometime detective, and last seen in the Ice Palace Murders is also on the case. In that adventure, Rafferty and Holmes engage in a friendly rivalry. Here, they operate on equal footing, almost in partnership with a synergy that invigorates every scene in which they appear together.

Millett, over the course of these three novels has become more comfortable and more confident with Holmes, Watson and Rafferty who return as welcome friends. His plots, whether simple or elaborate, entertain and never fail to absorb. It is difficult to predict if additional accounts of Holmes' work in Minnesota will crop up, or if further of adventures of Shadwell Rafferty alone will be unearthed. Either or both should be greeted with enthusiasm by the multitude of Holmes fans, the gathering host of Rafferty fans, or anyone just looking for a well-wrought tale.