When one of Minnesota’s wealthiest scions goes missing, it’s up to Sherlock Holmes and Doctor Watson to track a cold-blooded killer.
The year is 1896, and the magnificent winter carnival is under way in St. Paul, Minnesota, when Holmes and Watson are summoned by the city’s most powerful man, railroad magnate James J. Hill. A wealthy young man has disappeared on the eve of his wedding—and his fiancée suspiciously discards her wedding dress. After a grisly discovery in the carnival’s ice palace leads to a flurry of clues, Holmes is on the case.
His pursuit of the murderer takes him through the highest echelons of St. Paul society and into cahoots with Shadwell Rafferty, a gregarious saloon owner and part-time private investigator. Soon Holmes, Watson, and Rafferty are embroiled in a perilous adventure that takes them from one frozen corner of the city to another and out onto the treacherous ice of the Mississippi River as they trail a cruel and ruthless killer.
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“Narrator Steve Hendrickson deftly shifts from American to English and Irish accents as he portrays the characters, including a Holmes who is warmer than the original and a Watson who is wittier and more confident. Hendrickson vividly delivers the book’s descriptions of a Minnesota winter…Hendrickson’s best creation is crafty Irish barkeep Shadwell Rafferty, who helps Holmes and Watson understand the alien land they find themselves in. An unanticipated and deeply moving conclusion will move listeners to tears.”
— AudioFile
“Millett’s Holmes is a fair replica of Conan Doyle’s original, but the real triumph here is Rafferty, who lights up each scene in which he appears, adding a distinctively American bounce to a solid, complex mystery distinguished by its vibrant portrayal of nineteenth-century St. Paul. Holmes fans may feel free to tip their deerstalkers.”
— Publishers Weekly“Murder, blackmail, and revenge in the snow-covered city of St. Paul? Millett knows the history of the area and has done a good job of capturing the personalities of Holmes and Watson…A new Sherlockian pastiche is a treat.”
— Library Journal“A rattling good mystery with a well-hidden villain.”
— Kirkus ReviewsBe the first to write a review about this audiobook!
Larry Millett is the author of numerous historical mystery novels and nonfiction books and has also written for several historical and architectural magazines in the Midwestern United States. A native of Minneapolis, he earned a BA degree from St. John’s University, Collegeville, Minnesota, and an MA from the University of Chicago. He spent much of his career as a writer, reporter, and editor for the St. Paul Pioneer Press. In 1984, he won a Knight Fellowship to the University of Michigan to study architectural history and theory.
Steve Hendrickson has been a professional actor for over thirty years. A graduate of Yale School of Drama, he has appeared in theaters across the country. His audio projects include Archibald Finch and the Lost Witches and The Year the Yankees Lost the Pennant, among others.