Customer Reviews

On The Wrong Track

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Pardner, you need to mosey on down to the tradin' post and rustle yerself up a heap o' Steve Hockensmith.

I read _On the Wrong Track_ first, then *immediately* ran out and bought _Holmes on the Range_. The first one has more deductifyin', the second has more action. It'd be a little better to read them in order, but whatever--the important thing is to read them. These books are

* Laugh-out-loud funny
* Imaginative
* Colorful
* Fast-paced
* With a great cast of characters
* And interesting settings

And they're pretty darn good mysteries, to boot!

You could argue that both books are a wee bit more complicated than they really need to be. As a result, the villains have to do some speechifyin' in the denouements to explain themselves--a hoary tradition of the mystery, and therefore entirely forgivable. That's just about the only flaw I could identify in either volume.

It's rare to find a truly original voice in any kind of fiction, and particularly so in such a stylized genre as the mystery. Hockensmith qualifies in spades. I'll be grabbing the next book in the series as soon as it appears.

This is the second book in the series. I started with the first, Holmes on the Range (Holmes on the Range Mysteries)and recommend that you do too. While it works fine to start with this one, if you take them in order you will get the "origin" story straight, and there are a few allusions in the second book that will make more sense. Since after you read one you will surely want to read the other, you might as well take them in order.

I'm a Sherlock Holmes fan, if not a fanatic, and immediately fell in love with the premise of this series---a cowboy in the Old West reads about Sherlock Holmes and aspires to be like him. The Old West provides a fresh and fertile landscape as the setting for a Holmes style mystery. And the combination of these two great myths and genres holds obvious promise. An inspired choice. The author executes this concept with worthy aplomb and by this second book the characters are our endearing old friends.

After all, the joy of being a Holmes fan is only partly in the patented Holmes deductions, and only partly (and even less) in the mysteries themselves. The great joy comes in the characters, whose foibles become as familiar and comfortable to the reader as Holmes' slippers and pipe became to the Great Detective. And just so with Holmes' many successful descendants such as Hercule Poirot and Nero Wolfe.

The heroes in this series hew closer to the Holmes model than Poirot and Wolfe, but are admirably colorful and likeable in their own right. "Big Red," who assumes Watson's narrator role, is more of an independant character than Watson, and he spins out the yarn with steady doses of both suspense and humor. You'll keeping turning the pages eagerly with a broad grin on your face.

If anything, this second book slightly surpasses the first---introducing some more interesting secondary characters. My 12-year old son and I eagerly await number three.

Starting shortly after the incident in Holmes on the Range, in On the Wrong Track we find the Amlingmeyer brothers trying to find work where Gustav can use his investigating skills to fight crime. When we join the story, they've used most of the cash savings and been laughed at in most of the places they've asked about employment. However, a chance meeting with a down and out drunk who turns out to be Burl Lockhart, famous in many a penny dreadful, sets them off to become railroad detectives for Southern Pacific. Will this be the chance they need to see Gustav's dream come true or just another chance to fail?

There's some problems right at the beginning. You see Amlingmeyer's don't use trains because their cattlemen and the railroads are ruining the West, or at least that's why Otto always thought they didn't take trains. Gustav has a secret. He's ashamed to admit but any reader will figure it out by chapter two -- he gets train sick. Now the whole train thing and the fact that they're low on funds has Otto rethinking his relationship with Gustav. Gustav wants to be a detective and we saw in the first book that he really has a flair for it. He wants Otto to be his Watson and write up his stories. Otto has written the first adventure up but he refuses to send it off -- mainly because if you don't send it, it can't be rejected.

There's enough red herrings and misdirection to get a train on a track lost. But it's not confusing to the reader. Hockensmith sets us a tidy mystery with train robbers, drunk Pinkerton officials, officious train personnel, and some very strange and strangely acting passengers. And through it all we have the brothers who have to come to terms with the new changes in their relationship. Otto is the youngest but he's the one who can read. Gustav is rich in common sense and abilities but he's ridden the range for years and took on being father and brother to Otto when the family died in a flash flood years ago. Now they're equals and that is changing some of the dynamics in their relationship. And this is all coming on top of a mystery that looks like it could get them killed six ways from Sunday if they aren't careful.

This is a much richer book than Holmes on the Range, the characters were well drawn and believable in the first book but now they just crackle with energy, causing you, the reader, to worry about them and what they will do next. I found myself getting angry with the train personnel and passengers when they diss'd my guys. I like Otto and Gustav -- they're good people and I hope to read many more stories about their adventures. I just hope the next one lets me catch my breath between mishaps and near misses.

It's 1893 and the 'modern world', but cowboy Gustav prefers the lure of the road to the railway and holds a very different viewpoint from his brother, who likes the new trains. When they sign on to protect a luxurious train, overcoming a family hatred and fear of them, they find plenty of mystery and drama that ranges from a killer among the passengers to hijackers on the tracks. Another 'Holmes on the Range' blend of Western and mystery, ON THE WRONG TRACK is something different in the mystery world and is a top pick for discriminating mystery libraries looking for an outstanding blend of vivid plot, high drama, and strong characterization.

Diane C. Donovan
California Bookwatch

Steve Hockensmith resurrects the cowpuncher turned amateur sleuth Amlingmeyer brothers, Gustav known as Old Red and Otto known as Big Red in his latest western themed detective yarn. Gustav, the older brother a dedicated fan of Sherlock Holmes even though illiterate, convinces little brother Otto to take jobs as railroad detectives on the Southern Pacific line. The Southern Pacific has been a frequent target of an outlaw gang called the Give-Em Hells Boys much to the consternation of the railroad execs.

They get the job based on the recommendation of an aged, wiry and often inebriated Pinkerton detective of repute, Burl Lockhart, known for toting a pair of pearl handled .44 caliber pistols. The Amlingmeyer brothers get aboard, along with Lockhart and start mixing with an oddball assortment of characters who are passengers on the train. Soon thereafter a murder aboard the train starts a trail of intrigue which Old and Big Red start investigating and "deducifying". A visit by the Give-Em Hells Boys to the train stokes up the action to a fever pitch.

Hockensmith uses his droll sense of humor in creating a briskly paced adventure where the colorful characters are not all that they seem to be. The banter and interplay between the brothers is hilarious in that it seems so realistic. He succeeds in recreating the raucous nature of the halcyon days of the 1893 Old West.

This series by Steve Hockensmith is probably the most refreshing take on Sherlock Holmes since Kinky Friedman stopped writing mysteries. Like Kinky's books these stories do not focus on Holmes as a character in the story but as an influence to the protagonist. I hope to see many more books from this author in the near future, he is definately a talent!

Not quite as entertaining as Holmes on the Range, but entertaining nonetheless. Some good laughs, but the suspense isn't quite there. Too much time spent on Old Red's mysterious illness and a few too many loose ends. That said, I still look forward to their next adventure.

Gustav and Otto, better known as Old Red and Big Red are back and this time their riding the rails instead of the grub line. They've been hired by the Southern Pacific Rail Road and put on the express to San Francisco where they will receive their training. The problem is that they have to get over the mountains alive first. Not only is the train a target for a gang of outlaws with a grudge against the Southern Pacific but there is a murder committed on board almost as soon as the train gets started.
With a train full of suspects and a stomach that doesn't like train travel, Old Red starts investigating. The farther into the mountains they go the stranger and more complicated things get. As the brothers deal with murder, robbery, and a drunken Pinkerton Agent things go from bad to worse. Using the methods of Old Red's hero, Sherlock Holmes, the two brothers follow the clues to the end of the line.
Steve Hockensmith has written another winner. "On The Wrong Track" is a great read and excellent follow-up to "Holmes On The Range."

In 1893 following the latest train robbery by the "Give-'em-Hell Boys" the Southern Pacific hires detectives Gustav "Old Red" and Otto "Big Red" Amlingmeyer to guard the latest shipment of gold. Riding the rails, the siblings are stunned when the head of baggage handler Joe Pezullo falls from the moving train. Whereas Big Red insists it is not in their job description, Old Red decides to investigate the homicide.

Using the logic of his hero Sherlock Holmes, Old Red begins querying the passengers in the Pullman to see if he can find clues. He starts and finishes with sexy suffragist Diana Caveo; though he also talks with Dr. Chan and the Reds' peer cowboy detective Burl Lockhart, but learns little except that Miss Caveo is a babe. He finds inside the baggage car a snake, two coffins and the King of the Hoboes "Numero Uno." The case remains illogical until they find Thornton's Boiler #2 saloon where the Reds rescue Lockhart and Chan from drunken cowboys; then the investigation spins even further out of control.

Readers will appreciate the Reds' second amusing zany western Americana mystery (See HOLMES ON THE RANGE) as everything is afoot once Old Red applies his brand of Holmesian logic to the murder. The story line is hilarious with nothing from the late nineteenth century considered sacred as lampooning the absurd is the norm. Fans of jocular 1890s whodunits will laugh along side Big and Old Red as they guard the gold, investigate a murder, and cause havoc.

Harriet Klausner

I read this one out of order, so it was good to learn what preceded later tales where they refer back to this episode in the brothers' lives. I think it is as well written as the others, certainly, but I have to admit that you probably could get along without reading it. I did, but then again it was good to fill in gaps. Yes, you should read this one, too!