1893, Montana, and life is hard. However, a job is a job, so despite the fact that the work at Bar VR is shrouded in secrecy, Big Red (Otto) and Old Red (Gustav) Amlingmeyer sign up, expecting the basics of hard work, a lack of appreciation and being underpaid. It’s not long, however, before the ranch manager is flattened by what looks like a cattle stampede and someone else is found shot dead in the outhouse.

Old Red sees the opportunity to fulfil his dream, to follow in the steps of his hero, Sherlock Holmes, and Big Red sees the opportunity to follow in the steps of his brother to try and keep him out of harm’s way. Because admiring Sherlock Holmes and “deducifyin’” like Sherlock Holmes are two very different things…

I reviewed this book eight years ago, but you may recall, dear reader, that I’ve set myself some challenges for the year, one of which was reading the complete Holmes On The Range series, as there are two new novels, two new novellas and a new set of short stories that I’ve only just become aware of. Of course, I could go straight to them, but I decided to go back to the beginning instead, because I love these books and want to read them again. No reason more complicated than that.

Let’s explain the set-up. Gustav, the older brother, came back to the family ranch when Otto’s sisters and mother died in a flood. Taking Otto under his wing, Gustav taught him everything he knew about cowboying, while Otto helped with everything his illiterate brother couldn’t handle. One of those things was reading him stories from the occasional copies of The Strand magazine, hence Gustav’s hero-worship of the great detective. Oh, it’s worth pointing out that Sherlock Holmes is real in this world, which is set in a crucial point in his career – that plays a small part in this story, as do characters with links to one of the short stories.

Given the inspiration for the story, this isn’t a Sherlock Holmes style story, with a structure that plays out more like Agatha Christie, with a logical (and surprising) solution to a complex but easily followable mystery. While there is a strong vein of humour running through the story, the plot is treated seriously (even with a dead body apparently shot in a locked outhouse – not really a locked room mystery though). There is a little bit more action that the standard whodunit, and there is a cannibal. And a nose. The leads are real characters with real emotions – the story of Otto when the flood hits is absolutely tragic – and while you’ll have a lot of fun reading about them, there is a real depth here that is so often missing in comic crime.

If you want an introduction to the Amlingmeyer brothers, then you could try the short story collection Dear Mr Holmes, as that features their first appearance, but this is a step up, a full-fledged classic mystery novel that deserves your attention.