On the Wrong Track

First Line: Few things dampen a man's appreciation for natural splendor more quickly than the sound of another man's retching.

The man who's retching? Gustav "Old Red" Amlingmeyer. The man who has to listen to him? His brother, Otto "Big Red" Amlingmeyer. Something more is disagreeing with Old Red than the fact that he's traveling on a train. In fact, he has his brother completely mystified. You see, Old Red has the deep distrust of railroads that just about everyone does who's been raised on a farm in the late 1800s, and Big Red would love to know why his older brother insisted that they become railroad detectives on the Pacific Express.

The answer is rather simple: Old Red is tired of being a cowboy. He wants to follow in the footsteps show more of his hero, Sherlock Holmes, and give "detectifying" a try. Little do the two brothers know that they're in for a wild ride. They're being shadowed by a gang of outlaws who've already shown that they can rob the Pacific Express. There's a baggage car stuffed to the rafters with all sorts of deadly secrets, and amongst the colorful passel of passengers lurks a vicious killer. Getting trapped on this train as it barrels through the snowy High Sierras means that the Amlingmeyers need to be as good at deductifying as Mr. Holmes... or they're going to be fertilizer for the daisies that will bloom come spring.

My first piece of advice to you (besides "Get your hands on this book!") is to buckle up. It's been a few days since I've read On the Wrong Track, and I still feel as though I just fell off a rollercoaster after one helluva ride. Putting the Amlingmeyers on a train is a piece of genius. Those old steam locomotives scream Wild West, and what better setting for two cowboy detectives and a memorable cast of passengers?

There are passengers who aren't whom they appear to be, although they behave normally. There are passengers who act in a suspicious manner... but are they really up to something? Fellow railroad employees are by turns friendly, helpful, grouchy, mean, secretive, bossy.... A reader's head can spin without adding a gang of outlaws to the mix!

Once that train pulls out of the station, the pace turns into a runaway. One calamity after another strikes until it's almost impossible for those two detectifying brothers-- or the reader-- to catch their breath. To say I loved this book would be an understatement. I didn't so much read it as experience it. Steve Hockensmith gave me a ticket to ride, and I think I whooped and hollered all the way down the tracks. However, I'd like to caution you about one thing: If you have a fear or loathing of our legless reptilian brethren, I'd advise you to skip chapter twenty-three. I'm still keeping my Louisville Slugger at hand... and sitting with my feet off the floor.

If you have yet to read a book in this series, get your hands on one and read it! Odds are you'll then be following Old Red and Big Red wherever they may wander. When I turned the last page of On the Wrong Track, all I could do was remove my Stetson, beat off some of the dust, and grin. show less

Digital audiobook performed by William Dufris

Book two in the “Holmes on the Range” series of mysteries set in the American Wild West, circa 1893. The Amlingmeyer brothers are Gustave (Old Red) and Otto (Big Red), iterant cowhands but with aspirations to become detectives. Well, Gustave has the aspirations fueled by the stories of Sherlock Holmes, and Big Red takes on the role of Watson. This time out they’ve hired on as “Pinkertons in disguise” to ride the Southern Pacific and fend off the Give-‘em-Hell Boys, a notorious gang of robbers recently plaguing the railroad.

I really like this series, and I sure do wish I hadn’t waited so long to get to this second episode. In addition to the brothers, Hockensmith populates the show more books with an array of interesting and colorful side characters. One of the best things about the series is Hockensmith’s way with words. Here are some examples:
”When so much is sumptuous and shining, the gaudy spectacle of it is enough to make you forget, just for a moment, the ramshackle shoddiness of your everyday world.

“I hadn’t just put my foot in my mouth – I’d dipped it in arsenic first.”

“I would say he was three sheets to the wind, only I think he had a good many more sheets a -flapping than that.”

William Dufris does a fine job of narrating the audiobook. I love the way he interprets the Amlingmeyer brothers, particularly Otto, who narrates the story. show less

I read the first in this series featuring cowboy brothers Gustav “Old Red” and Otto “Big Red” Arlingmeyer in 2011. Since then, I’ve wanted to read more about this duo whose older half idolizes Sherlock Holmes and wants to model himself after him. It’s left to Otto to chronicle their adventures. In this instalment, they are hired by the Southern Pacific Railroad as detectives on a Utah to California trip, and run up against notorious train robbers.

The voice in this series is as breezy and refreshing as I remember it, albeit containing profanity of the day, but the villain in this particular piece was a little too obvious, for not being obvious, if you know what I mean. It was still fun to follow Old Red as he trailed the show more clues and filled in the details. 4 stars

Read this if: you’re looking for a good non-thriller mystery; or you’re a fan of Sherlock Holmes (you’ll be tickled how much Old Red tries to imitate him.) show less

Old Red and Big Red are brothers back in the Old West who are a bit more than stereotypical cowboys. Old Red is a big fan of Sherlock Holmes and wants to try his hand at detectifyin'. Big Red writes up their adventures. In "On The Wrong Track", the brothers get jobs as security on an express train watching for train robbers, but things on this train become mysterious right away when the brothers see a head bouncing down the tracks behind the train. Then the train robbers show up and things get much more mixed up...

The second in Hockensmith's series is a pretty good Holmes pastiche with a unique twist in the setting. The brothers are interesting lead characters, and the mystery - while not as difficult to figure out as some - is twisty show more enough to keep the reader's attention. Hockensmith captures the flavor of the Old West in the collection of supporting cast and their dialog. There's plenty of action to push the plot along - jumping on and off moving trains, fights in the baggage car, gunfights, the whole works!

Recommended. The book's stand-alone even though the second in a series. But for best flavor, start with the first. show less

On The Wrong Track is an light, enjoyable romp that takes itself exactly as seriously as it should be. A detective yarn-come-western, it's a fun adventure which moves along as quickly as the steam trains of its setting.

Old Red and Big Red, two cowboy brothers with a penchant for Sherlock Holmes and "deducifying", find themselves on board the Southern Pacific Express on route to San Francisco. Before they reach their destination, however, they'll have to grapple with train robbers, con artists, private eyes, and of course murder.

This book is fast and fun: it begins shortly before boarding and is wrapped up by time our heroes reach their destination - bar one or two tantalising hints for a sequel. The "Red" brothers, Otto and Gustav, are show more believable and entertaining characters, though the supporting cast are in the main much thinner. Hockensmith also has a nice line in banter and he resists the temptation to slide to far into cliche, sticking to its comforting periphery - which makes for familiar, comforting characters that still have a few surprises tucked away.

The mystery itself is well-constructed and Hockensmith plays out his clues in a timely fashion; it never feels too trite or pre-ordained. Mind you, anybody looking for a "real" mystery should look elsewhere; On The Wrong Track is true to its Holmesian antecedents as an entertaining diversion rather than a confounding and existential riddle.

But the book certainly fulfills all its promises with brio and flair, and what more can you ask for? An enjoyable adventure, I look forward to reading more of Big and Old Red in the future. show less

If you prefer mysteries to be more fun than frightening, you'll be on the right track if you read Steve Hockensmith's "On the Wrong Track" (2007). The second book in his Holmes on the Range series makes amusing reading, while at the same time presenting a compelling, fast-moving murder mystery.

Old Red and Big Red, actually Gustav and Otto Amlingmeyer, are a couple of aspiring detectives in the Old West. More accurately, Old Red (so-called simply because he is the eldest of the red-headed brothers, while Big Red is the tallest) is the aspiring detective, a devotee of Sherlock Holmes. Big Red plays his Watson, the guy who goes along, provides some muscle and then writes about the adventures afterward.

This time the brothers get jobs on the show more Pacific Express, a train heading West. The Southern Pacific Railroad has been plagued by a gang of outlaws known as the Give-'em Hell Boys, and the railroad wants extra protection. Of course, the gang shows up, but there appears to be a conspirator and, indeed, a murderer aboard the train. Old Red, who happens to get motion sickness on trains, is determined to solve the case anyway. As for Big Red, he seems more interested in protecting a certain young woman, who may not be quite whom she pretends to be.

Hockensmith writes some amusing lines and throws in some slapstick situations, but there's plenty of suspense, too. show less

#2 “Holmes on the Range” mystery set in the 1890’s western USA featuring Otto “Big Red” Amlingmeyer and his wanna-be Sherlock Holmes brother Gustav aka “Old Red.” In this episode, the brothers, cattle drovers cum detectives desperate for a job, are hired by the evil Southern Pacific Railroad as spies and private police to safeguard the passengers and freight aboard the Ogden to Oakland run that’s been previously victimized by a ruthless band of train robbers. What Otto doesn’t know is that Gustav has horrible ‘train sickness’ and the boys must work around that malady which isn’t made any easier when they spot someone’s head go bouncing down the tracks as Gustav is leaning over the railing emptying his stomach. show more

When they try to figure out who killed the baggageman and why, they seem to be stymied at every turn by the railroad staff, especially once they find out that the brothers are spies hired by the railroad bosses. A batch of decidedly odd passengers that includes a legendary railroad detective, a Chinese doctor, a couple of caskets, a huge snake and a crate of bricks complicates the plot, as does Otto’s interest in a rather forward, independent young lady whom Gustav warns him not to trust. When the robber gang stops the train and hops on with nothing more than a message for the railroad bosses and don’t actually rob anything, the mystery becomes even more puzzling. Gustav has to try to keep his mind sharp even as he’s physically exhausted, hungry and dehydrated due to his motion sickness, and eventually is able to assimilate the clues and wrap his head around a solution. Which is more than I was able to do—my bad guy antennae must’ve been on vacation while reading this book, I guess.

Enjoyable mystery with some slapstick and some subtle humor to lighten it up, packed with action and historical insights. I found this second entry in the series to be nothing short of delightful and was glad that it didn’t succumb to the sophomore slump. I’m looking forward to Black Dove, the third in the series—and I think this is one series I’ll most likely be trying to keep up with! show less