Customer Reviews

Sherlock Holmes and the Rune Stone Mystery

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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.

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.

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.

I liked Larry Millet's first two Sherlock Holmes mysteries and looked forward to this one. The subject matter seemed perfect for mystery and Minnesota history. Too bad. The book reads as though written in haste. Rafferty is superfluous and gets in the way. Mary Comstock's appearance on the scene is awkward, confusing, and difficult to believe. There is never any doubt about what Holmes will conclude as to the rune stone's authenticity, and the solution is far less interesting/mysterious than the real-life rune stone story. The murderer's identity is not a big deal and is not really solved by deduction. The historical details, which ordinarily are Millet's strong suit, are weaker here. Despite all that, it wasn't a bad read. The point is that Larry Millett has done and should do better.

This book did not live up to my expectations based on the prior two books. Can anyone who has read it figure out why Kensington didn't know what the reference to "Rochester" meant? This lapse in thinking by the author put a big damper on the book as far as I am concerned.

The story here had some promise, but Millett ruined it by injecting again (as in his "Ice Palace") the character of Mary Comstock. His late 1990s mind-set and desire to attract women readers allowed him to stray away from the spirit of the Canon by having her foil Holmes' attempts to bring her to justice. Perhaps we should be lucky Millett did not have Holmes fall in love with and marry her.

In 1899, a bored Sherlock Holmes reads in the London Times that a Minnesota farmer discovered an alleged fourteenth century Viking rune stone on his farm. That same day, renowned rune stone expert Professor Ohman visits Holmes with a proposition from King Oskar II of Sweden. The monarch wants to confirm that the rune stone is genuine before he spends his nation's money on attaining it. Holmes, who studied rune stone language during a trip to Sweden, agrees to travel to America to ascertain whether the rune stone is a fake or proof that Columbus was not first.

In Minnesota, Holmes and Watson learn that someone murdered Olaf Wahlgen, the farmer who found the rune stone and that his artifact is missing. As the two sleuths begin their inquiries, saloonkeeper and discreet investigator Shadwell Rafferty join the team. Also on the scene is an old foe Mary Robinson Comstack. Her arrival leads Holmes suspecting that she has some nefarious involvement in the rune stone mystery. Still, the trio searches a maze of misconception and lies to try to uncover the truth behind the stone and the murder.

SHERLOCK HOLMES AND THE RUNE STONE MYSTERY, the third Minnesota mystery, is a delightful blending of Holmes and Watson in a genuine piece of history. The fast-paced story line moves quickly yet never loses sight of Doyle's characterizations. Mary and Shadwell add depth, a feeling of homecoming, and the return of two memorable players in the brave new Sherlockian world. Larry Millet pays homage to Mr. Doyle with a novel and a series that is more than just another Holmes-light as this story tastes great.

Harriet Klausner