The Black Dove
The third book in Steve Hockensmith’s Holmes on the Range series steers a pair of rough hewn detective hopefuls off the wide open range and into the heart of the narrow cruel city. It’s San Francisco, 1893, and Gustav “Old Red” Amlingmeyer and his brother Otto (“Big Red”), are looking for work in the Sherlock Holmes tradition. Otto’s also after something more –the person of Diana Corvus, a mysterious character introduced in the previous book, On the Wrong Track. Down on their luck, the boys end up in Chinatown face to familiar face with a hot gun barrel and another player from OTWT, Dr. Gee Woo Chan. The reunion is short lived in the wake of a close encounter with an infamous Tong boss, and before long, Gustav and Otto find exactly what they’ve been searching for—a stumpifyin’ mystery and Ms. Corvus—in a way most deadly and unexpected.
Hockensmith’s invention of characters is a delight, and like his previous work, The Black Dove introduces us to an expertly conceived cast. There’s Cathal Mahoney, (a.k. a. The Coolietown Crusader),the enigmatic Madame Fong, men named Fat Choy and Scientific, deadly Tong hatchet men, Barbary Coast toughs, and in the center of everyone’s spiraling orbit, the secretive Black Dove. That all of these characters don’t ultimately stumble and blend into a blurry heap is a testament to the pace of the over all plot; things move rapidly along in The Black Dove with an ever heightening sense of action and peril.
Yet, the book offers more than an adventurous read. Compared to its predecessors, there’s more tightly focused history here: Chinese-American culture at the turn of the century, the development of big city crime and law enforcement, the place of professional men and women. It never gets in the way, but you can sense the research that went on in the story’s creation.
And with all that, it also manages to maintain the light hearted sense of romance so important to the series.
The Black Dove is my favorite of the HOTR books, but that preference will be tested this summer when St. Martin’s releases the follow up. The Crack in the Lens ships in July and devoted fans of Sherlock Holmes (or careful readers of The Black Dove) may already know what the title alludes to.
Additionally, I’m happy to announce a two-part interview with Steve Hockensmith on these very pages next week, May 19 and 21. With revelations about HOTR beginnings to specific answers on writing and craft, Hockensmith engages in a generous and informative conversation with Meridian Bridge. Please join us!