This is the third appearance here by my friend and fellow SleuthSayer Steve Hockensmith. I am rather surprised that it is the first one I have listed concerning his series characters the Amlingmeyer brothers. Old Red and Big Red are cowboys at the end of the nineteenth century. Old Red is illiterate but a huge fan of Sherlock Holmes. His younger brother Big Red is his long-suffering Watson.
When this story opens Gus and Otto (to give them either more formal names) have just settled in Ogden, Utah, where they have opened a detective agency. Due to Big Red's big mouth they find themselves out in the hills searching for a pine tree to help their landlady celebrate Christmas. This being a crime story, other stuff happens.
What makes these tales a treat is a combination of great characters and fine language. For example, our heroes meet three children and here is a bit of conversation with two of them.
"We were out looking for a Christmas tree," the boy said, "and we spotted a bear and-"
"I spotted it," the girl -- Sariah -- interjected.
Her brother ignored her.
"--we think it might be dead, but if it's alive we thought we could shoot it and sell the meat in town--"
"I thought we could shoot it and sell the meat in town," Sariah said.
Ammon kept plowing on.
"--but we don't have a gun, so we sent our little brother to find somenoe who did--"
"I sent our little brother..." Sariah began...
You can picture them, can't you?
By the way, if you want to know what happens to the brothers next, you can find out in Hockensmith's new book The Double A Western Detective Agency. I can testify that it is, as Big Red, would say, a real ripsnorter.
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