This delightful novel takes place in a colorful version of Montana in 1893. Sherlock Holmes exists as a real person in this world. He has no bigger fan than Old Red.

Old Red (who is in his twenties) is the bossy older brother of Big Red . The brothers are different as night and day. Old Red is reserved and severe. Big Red is charming and carefree. Old Red is illiterate and ashamed of it even though his sacrifice (leaving school to work) enabled Big Red to get an education. Big Red tries to repay him by reading him the news reports about the latest case Sherlock Holmes has solved.

Sometimes Big Red infuriates Old Red with his foolishness. Sometimes Old Red drives Big Red crazy with his micro-managing. But the brothers have had their entire Germanic pioneer family wiped out by a series of natural disasters, and they only have each other left.

Big Red is our first-person narrator, and from him we learn that both brothers are cowboys, and this year they have fallen on hard times. They need jobs and are willing to consider any reasonable offer. When the McPherson brothers, who are obviously thugs, call for recruits to work on a mysterious ranch, Big Red and Old Red are hardly in a position to say no.

They will have cause to regret their decision. The Bar-VR ranch is run by a supercilious overseer who expresses disdain towards the ragged eccentrics who volunteered to be new ranch hands. He manages the place for the owners who reside in faraway England.

The McPhersons get free run of the place, but the new guys are expected to stick to their bunkhouse and not ask questions. This doesn’t sit well with the new hires. The more colorful among them, including one bloke who speaks in an amusingly incomprehensible Cockney dialect, are itching to make trouble. Old Red cautions his brother to stay clear of the griping and back-biting: he believes that one or more of the new hires is a spy for management. Best to keep to themselves, obey the rules, and watch for anything suspicious.

The brothers don’t have long to wait: they find a dead body on the prairie that has been churned to bits beneath the hooves of stampeding cattle. Everyone is completely grossed out except for Old Red. He, not usually the type to express emotion, can barely contain his excitement at having his very own murder to investigate. For years he’s been itching to employ the sleuthing methods of his hero Sherlock Holmes. Now he is able to identify the corpse as belonging to the overseer!

Old Red is about to bite off almost more than he can chew. More murders will happen, and his suspects will include everyone from the McPhersons to his fellow new hires to a cannibal killer named Hungry Bob who is rumored to be in the area. In addition, the ranch owners pick this hectic time to drop in from England for a surprise inspection!

Holmes on the Range is that rarest of books: a humorous mystery in which both the comedy and the mystery are equally strong. It is a nominee for the Edgar Allan Poe Award for best first mystery. Drop everything and go buy it for your collection at Amazon through this link: Holmes on the Range