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Loading... Sherlock Holmes and the Secret Allianceby Larry Millett
   None No current Talk conversations about this book.  teckelvik | Sep 29, 2009 |  no reviews | add a review
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As the city of Minneapolis prepares for a visit from President William McKinley, someone else prepares for murder. On the day before the visit, a union activist is found hanged, naked, outside a ruined mansion. A placard around his neck reads "THE SECRET ALLIANCE HAS SPOKEN." Who is the alliance? What does it want? How was the victim involved with the city's corrupt mayor? And why did he possess a photograph of a prominent citizen in a compromising position? Shadwell Rafferty searches for answers, encountering bribery, corruption, union organizers, anarchists, and conspiracy, putting himself in danger. But as luck would have it, his old friends Sherlock Holmes and Dr. John H. Watson are on their way. In this fourth installment of Larry Millett's Minnesota Mystery series, Shadwell Rafferty commands center stage in a brand-new city. Packed with Millett's signature historical and architectural detail, this book is deviously delightful. No library descriptions found. |
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 Google Books — Loading...GenresMelvil Decimal System (DDC)813.54Literature English (North America) American fiction 20th Century 1945-1999LC ClassificationRatingAverage: (3.5)
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Things that threw me out of the book:
The prologue consisted of infodump, on the architectural history of Minneapolis. I'm a history buff, and it was dull. All of it was stuff the author needed to know, but I wasn't convinced that I, the reader, needed it. (Infodump has to be earned. If it has to happen, it comes later, when the reader can't follow the plot without it.)
Footnotes. I love footnotes. This book had too many, and they weren't helpful. References to previous volumes in the series, in correct bibliographic form, credited to JH Watson, ed. L Millett, stopped me cold.
The diary of Dr. Watson. A nice conceit, but the author doesn't have Watson's voice down, and it rang false. It felt precious and forced.
I was already on the verge of quitting when I got introduced to the protagonist. He's an Irishman, in St. Paul, in the late 19th century, and he both watches his weight and has an African American business partner. That pushed me over the edge, and I quit. (