World’s Greatest Sleuth! A Holmes on the Range Mystery
It’s the 1893 Chicago World’s Fair, and the Holmes on the Range cowboy detective team of Gustav (“Old Red”) and Otto (“Big Red”) Amlingmeyer are on the job. Does life get any better than this? Called upon by their editor to make spectacles of themselves (along with international competition) in a very public scavenger hunt to bestow the title of The World’s Greatest Sleuth, a murder is soon committed. The boys are up and running. Well, fumbling, much of the time, if truth be told, as train travel, big cities, and even the electric lights of the “White City” are as foreign as the feminine heart of Diana Corvus, this time teamed with her foster father and in competition with our boys.
As the contest continues without the death of its organizer even being acknowledged as anything but an unfortunate accident, the brothers keep amassing clues and bearded men who follow them all over the Columbian Exhibition. When the competitors decide to team up, the final breathless confrontation is all the spectacle an audience (and reader) might desire from these fish-out-of water turned heroes.
Moving from the increasingly hackneyed contest into the thick of the investigation was a good idea of both writer and detectives. So was the brotherly affection demonstrated during Gustav’s black moment. A second possible female in the boys’ orbit (journalist Lucille Larson) is a welcome addition, but the heart of Diana remains stubbornly elusive.
