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Title details for Sherlock Holmes and the Red Demon by Larry Millett - Available

Sherlock Holmes and the Red Demon

A Minnesota Mystery

#1 in series

by Larry Millett
Steve Hendrickson
Audiobook
1 of 1 copy available
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1 of 1 copy available

In the summer of 1994, a workman at the historic mansion of railroad baron James J. Hill in St. Paul, Minnesota, stumbles on a long-hidden wall safe. When experts arrive to open the safe and examine its contents, they make an astonishing discovery. There, inside, is a handwritten manuscript bearing the signature of John H. Watson, MD. The manuscript contains the story of how Sherlock Holmes and Watson traveled to Minnesota to track a murderous arsonist—known only as the Red Demon—who is threatening both Hill and his Great Northern Railway.

Set against the backdrop of the real, devastating Hinckley forest fire of 1894, Sherlock Holmes and the Red Demon is the tense and atmospheric first novel in Larry Millett's classic series of adventures that brought Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson to Minnesota.

  • Creators

  • Series

    Sherlock Holmes in Minnesota

  • Publisher

  • Release date

    June 28, 2016

  • Formats

    • OverDrive Listen audiobook

      • ISBN: 9781504766708
      • File size: 276047 KB
      • Duration: 09:35:05

  • Languages

    • English

  • Levels

    • Lexile® Measure: 1030
    • Text Difficulty: 6-8

  • Reviews

    • Publisher's Weekly

      September 2, 1996
      Placing Sherlock Holmes in the pineries of Northern Minnesota in 1894 may not have been a three-pipe problem for Minneapolis architecture columnist Millett (Lost Twin Cities). However, there is little here but smoke and facade. The real and devastating Hinckley, Minn., fire of 1894 serves as the historical backdrop when Holmes is hired by railroad tycoon James J. Hill to find the Red Demon, the man "who is trying to burn down one of his railroads." After arriving in Hinckley to investigate, Holmes and Watson are attacked by feared logger Jean Baptiste LeGrande and rescued by Tom "Boston" Corbett, who claims to have killed John Wilkes Booth. The Town Marshall is murdered before clues lead the London duo to identify the Red Demon and the injury that motivates his actions. The final duel between Holmes and the Red Demon on a burning trestle is gripping, but this action is too little too late. Millett capitalizes on expected Sherlockian gimmicks ("parlor tricks" of deduction, hints of unrecorded grotesque cases, Holmes's masterful disguises and Watson's pomposity) but fails to probe beneath the surface of Holmes's popular image.

    • AudioFile Magazine
      Narrator Steve Hendrickson deftly captures the tone of this story, based on a real 1894 event, the raging fires in Minnesota's piney woods. Sherlock Holmes is asked by railroad tycoon James J. Hill to investigate threats to his Great Northern Railway by an unknown person who's nicknamed the Red Demon. Millett's characters are wonderful eccentrics who come alive in Hendrickson's lively presentation. Most entertaining is his rendering of the good-natured sparring between Holmes and Watson as they "go native" in dress and speech. When they close in on the perpetrator, they must visit Mother Mary's brothel, which is Hendrickson's finest moment. The closing battle between Holmes and the Red Demon on a railroad trestle offers listeners a delicious sense of déjˆ vu. S.G.B. © AudioFile 2016, Portland, Maine
    • Publisher's Weekly

      June 30, 1997
      This "rediscovered" 19th-century manuscript (actually the work of columnist Larry Millett) transports the legendary London sleuth to frontier Minnesota to crack an arson case.

Formats

  • OverDrive Listen audiobook

subjects

Languages

  • English

Levels

  • Lexile® Measure:1030
  • Text Difficulty:6-8

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