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(More customer reviews)That Hockensmith feller looks like one of them galoots who ain't satisfied less'n he's doing something different with every book. And, dagnabit, that's a good thing--long as you're not one of those folks who just wants a heap of more of the same every time out.
See, _Holmes on the Range_ was a flat-out classical mystery with a house full o' suspects. And _On the Wrong Track_ was a rollicking adventure/mystery with train robbers and runaway locomotives. Well, _The Black Dove_ is a tough-guy private eye mystery with a bit of moral ambiguity in it.
Now maybe you're figuring that there's something a little cockeyed about a humorous Dashiell Hammett film noir Sherlock Holmes Wild West Chinatown gumshoe tall tale. Well, pardner, all I can say is: it works.
Just don't expect no reruns of the other two books, plotwise. _The Black Dove_ sticks with the conventions of the shamus subgenre. The Amlingmeyer boys don't spend so much time eyeballing crime scenes or jawboning with witnesses or busting alibis or constructing timetables. Instead, the questions are: Who's got the power? Who's corrupt and who (if anyone) is straight? How can individuals stand up to powerful and ruthless groups? And that eternal classic, who wants them dead? Heck, there's even some genuine pathos in this one. (Anyone who reads my reviews regular-like--all both of you--will understand when I say that this here is a ball-of-twine plot, not a jigsaw-puzzle plot.)
Which ain't to say that all the virtues of the prior tales are gone. Big Red and Old Red are still as fine and sassy a pair of saddle pals as a feller could ask for. Me being a sucker for clever deducifyin', I'm happy to report that there's some dandy logic-chopping as well--the delightful Miz Corvus gets in a particularly fine lick or two. There's enough Holmes references to keep the conceit lively. And, of course, the setting is a good one, well rendered.
So what are you waiting for, ya darn greenhorn? Get a wiggle on, saddle up, and wrangle yourself a copy. And when you're done, you can join me in wondering: what in tarnation is Kid Hockensmith going to get up to next?
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