On the Wrong Track » (Reprint)

Steve Hockensmith writes a monthly column for "Alfred Hitchcock's Mystery Magazine,""" and stories featuring Big Red and Old Red appear regularly in "Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine,"" "He has been a finalist for the Shamus Award for his short-story writing. "Holmes on the Range" is his first novel.

William Dufris have extensive experience on stage and screen.

Filled with all the wit, flavor, humor, and suspense that made "Holmes on the Range" such a critical hit, "On the Wrong Track" will have listeners rushing to the train station. Unabridged. 1 MP3 CD.

Publishers Weekly

In Hockensmith's hilarious second 1890s romp starring the cattle drovers-turned-detectives Gustav "Old Red" and Otto "Big Red" Amlingmeyer (after 2006's acclaimed Holmes on the Range), the brothers are hired as guards for the Southern Pacific, a rail line bedeviled by the "Give-'em-Hell Boys" who rob gold shipments. After baggage handler Joe Pezullo's severed head bounces from the Pacific Express, Gustav, inspired by his hero Sherlock Holmes, hopes to apply his own deductive powers to the case. In the Pullman is a collection of oddballs, including seductive suffragist Miss Diana Caveo, shady Dr. Chan and boozed-up cowboy detective Burl Lockhart. The baggage car contains even stranger cargo: a crated snake, two coffins and the self-proclaimed King of the Hoboes, dubbed "Numero Uno." Otto's uproarious narration takes us to Thornton's Boiler #2, a dilapidated saloon, where the Amlingmeyers rescue Burl and Chan from the clutches of raucous cowpunchers. As this fast-moving express hurtles toward a spectacular ending, Gustav searches for ways to apply Holmes's crime-solving genius to the comic bedlam. Author tour. (Mar.) Copyright 2006 Reed Business Information.