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Author Steve Hockensmith booklist (click here)

Book Review By Bobby Blades
Holmes On The Range by Steve Hockensmith

In Steve Hockensmith's debut novel he mixes mystery and a fun western yarn in Holmes On the Range. The book opens up with Big Red (Otto Amlingmeyer) explaining how his brother Old Red (Gustav Amlingmeyer) got interested in being a detective after Otto read Gustav the Sherlock Holmes story The Red-Headed League. The cowpokes soon get hired for the Bar VR ranch for five dollars a week. Not long after they arrive, Big Red and Old Red find the mangled corpse of manager, Perkins. This motivates Old Red to investigate and soon the corpse of another worker on the ranch is found dead. It's here that the owner of the land makes a bet with his underling Brackwell that the brothers will not solve the case. Bid Red and Old Red then stop their duties on the farm and go full time into investigating the murders, solving the riddles in a plausible manner for the Duke.


Plot & Themes
Tone of story - very humorous
How difficult to spot villain? - Challenging
Time/era of story:
What % of story relates directly to the mystery, not the subplot? - 60%
Kind of investigator
Kid or adult book? - Adult or Young Adult Book
descript. of violence and chases - 30 %
Planning/preparing, gather info, debate puzzles/motives - 40 %
Feelings, relationships, character bio/development - 20 %
How society works & physical descript. (people, objects, places) - 10 %
Crime Thriller Yes
Murder Mystery (killer unknown) Yes

Main Character
Gender - Male
Age: - 20's-30's
Ethnicity/Race

Main Adversary
Identity: - none

Setting
United States Yes
The US: - Midwest

Writing Style
Accounts of torture and death? - very gorey descriptions deaths/dead bodies
Unusual forms of death - perforation--bullets
Unusual form of death? Yes
Amount of dialog - roughly even amounts of descript and dialog
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