Steve Hockensmith, World’s Greatest Sleuth: A Holmes on the Range Mystery

Steve Hockensmith, World’s Greatest Sleuth: A Holmes on the Range Mystery
Minotaur Books
© Steve Hockensmith
ISBN 978-0-312-37943-8
Also available as an ebook

Steve Hockensmith’s World’s Greatest Sleuth is quite an achievement, and some background might be useful.  Gustav (a/k/a Old Red) and Otto (Big Red) are the Amlingmyer brothers, itinerant cowboys in the early 1890s.  Old Red is illiterate, but a devotee of Sherlock Holmes; Big Red reads the stories to him.  And Old Red has internalized Holmes’s methods, and has become something of a sleuth himself.  (You can discover their earlier adventures:
http://www.stopyourekillingme.com/H_Authors/Hockensmith_Steve.html)  This is the 4^th full length adventure (there is also a book of short stories).

One thing to keep in mind is that, in the world of these books, Sherlock Holmes is a real historical figure, as are the other sleuths whose real, not fictional, exploits are recounted in the magazines (and occasional books) of the time.  Otto is one of these writers.  And news has come from England that Holmes is gone, vanished and presumably dead.  And a contest has been arranged, for the Chicago World’s Fair, in which a number of the detectives everyone read about will attempt to solve a mystery and claim the title of the World’s Greatest Sleuth—and a substantial cash prize--$10,000, a real fortune in 1893, when the average wage of unskilled labor was about $0.13 per hour, and gross domestic product per capita was about $230 per year.

Gustav is reluctant, but Otto (and the $200 they have received in advance from Urias Smythe, Otto’s publisher) talks him into it, and they are off to Chicago, where they meet, for the first time, Otto’s publisher, who’s immediate reaction is “Oh. God…I’m ruined.”

Well, that’ll set you back.  But there they are, outfitted with new clothes (a story in itself), with rooms in what seems to be the cheapest hotel in Chicago.  They meet their competitors at dinner, all of whom are more comfortable in their surroundings (and one of whom is a woman with whom both Amlingmeyer’s are smitten), and, the next morning the contest begins.  The contest involves solving a clue or series of clues, finding a large bronze egg, and returning with it, with a daily challenge.  The sleuth with the best record, and his (or her) publisher win the prize.  The situations are devised by Armstrong B. Curtis, and the judge is William Pinkerton (son of Alan).

But, of course, a real mystery and a real crime intrudes.  And for the Amlingmeyers (and for their heart throb) winning the contest takes a backseat to catching the killer.

The setting—the White City—has been used often, both in mysteries (for a list:
https://worldsfairchicago1893.com/home/media/books-fiction/)
and in non-fiction (most notably Erik Larson’s The Devil and the White City).  Hockensmith does a masterful job of making the setting come alive.  He also manages to create a Chicago police officer (Sergeant Ryan) who is honest, and a more-than-competent detective.

I have enjoyed all the previous books in the series, and this is a terrific piece of work (and I want to emphasize that my enjoyment of it, while perhaps deepened by having read the earlier installments, did not depend on having read them.  I can assure you that you can—and should—enjoy World’s Greatest Sleuth without starting at the beginning.  It’s 8 years old, now, which makes me worry that me might not have more opportunities to spend time with Old Red and Big Red.  I sincerely hope that I will soon be spending more time with the World’s Greatest Sleuths (an accolade they deserve regardless of the outcome of the contest).