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A review by exurbanis
On the Wrong Track by Steve Hockensmith
4.0
I read the first in this series featuring cowboy brothers Gustav “Old Red” and Otto “Big Red” Arlingmeyer in 2011. Since then, I’ve wanted to read more about this duo whose older half idolizes Sherlock Holmes and wants to model himself after him. It’s left to Otto to chronicle their adventures. In this instalment, they are hired by the Southern Pacific Railroad as detectives on a Utah to California trip, and run up against notorious train robbers.
The voice in this series is as breezy and refreshing as I remember it, albeit containing profanity of the day, but the villain in this particular piece was a little too obvious, for not being obvious, if you know what I mean. It was still fun to follow Old Red as he trailed the clues and filled in the details.
Read this if: you’re looking for a good non-thriller mystery, especially in a 19th century western setting; or you’re a fan of Sherlock Holmes (you’ll be tickled how much Old Red tries to imitate him.)
4 stars
The voice in this series is as breezy and refreshing as I remember it, albeit containing profanity of the day, but the villain in this particular piece was a little too obvious, for not being obvious, if you know what I mean. It was still fun to follow Old Red as he trailed the clues and filled in the details.
Read this if: you’re looking for a good non-thriller mystery, especially in a 19th century western setting; or you’re a fan of Sherlock Holmes (you’ll be tickled how much Old Red tries to imitate him.)
4 stars