Holmes on the Range

1893 is a tough year in Montana, and any job is a good job. When Big Red and Old Red Amlingmeyer sign on as ranch hands at the secretive Bar-VR cattle spread, they're not expecting much more than hard work, bad pay, and a comfortable campfire around which they can enjoy their favorite pastime: scouring Harper's Weekly for stories about the famous Sherlock Holmes.

Gustav "Old Red" Amlingmeyer is an old-fashioned kind of guy: He prefers a long trail ride even when a train ticket can get him where he's going in one-tenth the time. So when it's Old Red who insists on guarding the Pacific Axpress, despite a generations-old family distrust of the farm stealin', cattle-killin', money-grubbing' railroads, Big Red is flummoxed. But as usual, he'll follow his ornery brother just about anywhere.

Crime-solving cowboys Gus "Old Red" and Otto "Big Red" Amlingmeyer are wandering around San Francisco when they stumble onto another mystery to be solved: the death of their acquaintance Dr. Chan. It turns out that no one wants this mystery solved, but that doesn't stop the brothers from riling up the locals with their heavy-handed investigations.

In 1893, Otto "Big Red" Amlingmeyer and his brother, Gustav "Old Red," find themselves in a situation that they never expected: they have a bit of money and time to do something other than scramble. It's enough to confound even that most unconfoundable of men, their mutual inspiration, Sherlock Holmes.

In 1893, the Amlingmeyer boys venture forth from the west in response to a summons from Otto's ("Big Red") publisher - they are to come to Chicago immediately, to the World's Columbian Exposition, and compete with some of the most famous detectives in the world. Set to coincide with the closing days of the first World's Fair and the publication of the story revealing the death of Sherlock Holmes, Gustav ("Old Red") will be competing for the title of World's Greatest Sleuth!

Big Red and Old Red Amlingmeyer’s dream has come true: The Sherlock Holmes-worshiping cowboy brothers are finally in business as professional detectives. But their fledgling A.A. Western Detective Agency faces a few challenges. Their partner, Col. Crowe, is almost as cantankerous and secretive as Old Red himself. The colonel’s daughter, Diana, insists on tagging along for the Amlingmeyers’ first assignment, which lands them smack dab in the middle of a range war - with Big Red and Old Red expected to shoot it out with rustlers rather than rustle up clues and solve a mystery.

Sherlock Holmes-worshiping cowboys Big Red and Old Red Amlingmeyer have starred in five Holmes on the Range novels, rustling up award nominations and fans aplenty as they cracked mysteries using the methods of their English hero. How did these Old West drifters first discover Holmes, though? What were they doing before their novel adventures began? And how did their early, awkward stabs at "deducifying" turn out? These seven short stories provide the answers.