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THE BLACK DOVE
by Steve Hockensmith
St Martin's Minotaur, February 2008
296 pages
$23.95
ISBN: 0312347820


Buy in the UK | Buy in Canada

Steve Hockensmith serves up another fast-paced, atmospheric adventure in THE BLACK DOVE, third in his series about the Amlingmeyer brothers. Originally cowboys, Old Red got a taste for "detectivin'" when his brother Big Red read him a Sherlock Holmes adventure. This led to their solving a murder on their ranch (HOLMES ON THE RANGE) and then trying their hands at being train detectives (ON THE WRONG TRACK).

Now they have come to San Francisco, hoping to join the Pinkerton Detective Agency and see if Big Red has successfully sold their story to a publisher. But the Pinkertons don't want a pair of ex-cowboys, particularly if one is illiterate, and the Southern Pacific Railroad doesn't want the details of their last adventure getting out.

So they are soon out of money and at loose ends when they run into Dr Chan, who they had met on their previous adventure. When Dr Chan is found dead the next day, the police call it suicide. Old Red calls it murder.

And soon the Amlingmeyers and Diana Corvus (another refugee from the Southern Pacific) are on the case, navigating between the Chinese tongs, the Anti-Coolie League, corrupt and racist police, and houses of ill repute, trying to find the murderer and the mysterious Black Dove. Why have two Chinese apothecaries died? What or who is the Black Dove? And is the Chinatown Crusader working for or against the immigrants?

Everything I've enjoyed about the previous books is back – a tight plot, a good puzzle, witty dialogue, a fast pace, and a rock-solid atmosphere of the old West with the faintest overtones of the Holmesian story that provided inspiration (in this case, The Man With the Twisted Lip). We also get some new background on the gruff Old Red, which I appreciated.

To be fair to the reader, I have to point out that turn of the century anti-Asian racism is a major theme, with even the relatively enlightened Big Red translating all the Chinese he hears as "yak yak yak." (The German also goes untranslated, which means that Big Red's most colorful insults, usually aimed right at the Anti-Coolie League, are also unknown). But Hockensmith can't be blamed for portraying the time and place with the warts it had, and he does a good job of presenting the Chinese side of the story sympathetically through Old Red's eyes.

As with the previous books in the series, THE BLACK DOVE is excellent for anyone who likes an Old West or Holmesian story. However, because it ties so directly to ON THE WRONG TRACK, I would not recommend it as your introduction to the series. Best to start at the beginning, with the superb HOLMES ON THE RANGE.

Reviewed by Linnea Dodson, February 2008

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Contact: Yvonne Klein (ymk@reviewingtheevidence.com)


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