The Black Dove: A Holmes on the Range Mystery (Holmes on the Range Mysteries) (Hardcover)

~ (Author) "It wasn't just fear I felt as I faced those highbinders and their hatchets..." (more)
Key Phrases: fan kwei, cabbage man, hatchet men, Old Red, Fat Choy, Little Pete (more...)

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

In Edgar-finalist Hockensmith's rollicking third mystery to feature Old Red and Big Red Amlingmeyer (after 2007's On the Wrong Track), the Sherlock Holmes–loving cowboy brothers do some detectifying in 1893 San Francisco, the world's wickedest city. After their disastrous tour of duty as railway policemen, the Amlingmeyers join forces with the alluring Diane Corvus, another veteran of the railroad. Together, they investigate the death of Dr. Chan, whose luggage was thrown from the same train that the brothers patrolled and who was possibly done in by Chinese highbinders, or hatchet men. Working with local law enforcement and Chinatown's Napoleon of Crime, Old Red and Big Red follow a twisted trail that leads from cabbage vendors to whorehouses. Despite a jam-packed plot, Hockensmith takes longer to reach full speed than in previous outings. Still, readers will delight in the hilarious climactic Mandarin standoff between Chinatown's underworld and Frisco's hapless police force. (Feb.)
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Product Description

In the summer of 1893, Gustav “Old Red” Amlingmeyer and his brother Otto (a.k.a. “Big Red”) find themselves down and out in San Francisco. Though cowpokes by training, the brothers are devotees of the late, great Sherlock Holmes and his trademark method of “deducifying.” But when they set out to land jobs as professional detectives, they land themselves in hot water, instead.

     First their friend Dr. Chan mysteriously takes a potshot at them, fatally wounding Big Red’s new hat. Then a secretive young woman from their past pops up and convinces them that Chan’s in trouble -- and they’re just the men to get him out of it. Unfortunately, they’re too late: By the time they track Chan down again, he’s dead. The police call it a suicide. Old Red calls that a lie. When he and his brother set out to prove it, they put themselves on a collision course with shady S.F.P.D. cops, brutal Barbary Coast hoodlums and the deadly Chinatown tongs.

     Before long, all sides are in a race to uncover the secret that could rock the city. And their only clue to what’s actually going on is the enigmatic, exotic and extremely difficult to find “Black Dove.”

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 304 pages
• Publisher: Minotaur Books (February 19, 2008)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0312347820
• ISBN-13: 978-0312347826
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 6.1 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (16 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #204,059 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

• This is item 3 in The Holmes on the Range Mysteries Series.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

14 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Not what I expected... but good!, February 20, 2008

By	Jonathan A. Turner (Nashua, NH United States) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

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?

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Old Red in Chinatown, April 25, 2008

By	Mark Baker (Santa Clarita, CA United States) - See all my reviews (TOP 100 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

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Brothers Gustav and Otto Amlingmeyer (Old Red and Big Red respectively) are spending the summer in San Francisco. An accidental encounter with Dr. Chan, a friend from their adventure on the South Pacific railroad, revels he is quite nervous about something. In fact, he shoots at Big Red before realizing who he is. So when Chan turns up dead the next morning, Old Red doesn't buy the suicide pronouncement.

Since Dr. Chan lived in the heart of Chinatown, finding out what really happened to him won't be easy. The residences don't trust white men. Their only clue is "The Black Dove." Will that and Old Red's devotion to Sherlock Holmes be enough to find out what happened to Dr. Chan?

This is the third book in the series, and these characters now feel like old friends (even if I don't appreciate their foul mouths.) Their constant bickering is fun and funny. Although the funniest scene...well, I'll leave that for you to discover. But while the book is funny, it does grow quite serious at times. This isn't light hearted fair but a serious book with some wildly funny parts. And the book wonderfully brings the world of 1893 to life.

The mystery itself is good. It did seem to drag a few times, but once the climax came it was well worth reading.

The only thing I was left wondering is where will the brothers go from here. I can hardly wait to find out.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Entertaining, if a bit light, February 20, 2008

By	David W. Nicholas (Montrose, CA USA) - See all my reviews (TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

I've always been a big fan of Sherlock Holmes. When I was a young man, I was also a big fan of Louis L'Amour. I've read both detective novels, and to a lesser extent Westerns, ever since. This current book is an attempt to combine the two genres, a weird concoction of both genres, with nods to Conan Doyle and various Western antecedents. The result is a bit uneven, and rather strange, but fun also.

It's 1893, and the Amlingmeyer brothers, Gustav (nicknamed "Old Red" for his red hair) and Otto ("Big Red", he's half a foot taller than his older brother) have decided that they should be detectives, mostly because Otto's read Conan Doyle's Sherlock Holmes stories to his brother, and the brother has decided he can "deducify" as well as the famous detective. Apparently neither of the brothers has figured out that Sherlock was fictional, and that some of his detection techniques aren't quite as workable as Conan Doyle makes them look in the books.

As this third installment in the series starts, they've washed up in San Francisco, having been fired from their first jobs as detectives on the Southern Pacific Railroad. They meet a friend from their previous adventures, a Chinese herbalist. He reacts poorly to their meeting (taking a shot at Big Red before he realizes he's with friends) then soon after winds up dead. The two brothers, joined by a female colleague from their previous adventures, decide they need to know why their friend died, and take off trying to solve the crime, certain that it was a murder.

The whole book takes place, essentially, over a day, from morning til late in the evening. The style is half-way tongue-in-cheek, speedy and somewhat wry in the humor department. Otto, the younger, literate brother, serves as the narrator of the story, while his older cohort and their female companion are the detectives. It's a bit short on premise, at times, but you wind up not caring, because the story, atmosphere, and characters are rather fun. I enjoyed it a great deal, and think it worth the trouble.