Sherlock Holmes and the Red Demon: A Minnesota Mystery cover art

Sherlock Holmes and the Red Demon: A Minnesota Mystery

Sherlock Holmes & Shadwell, Book 1

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Sherlock Holmes and the Red Demon: A Minnesota Mystery

By: Larry Millett
Narrated by: Steve Hendrickson
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About this listen

In the summer of 1994, a workman at the historic mansion of railroad baron James J. Hill in St. Paul, Minnesota, stumbles on a long-hidden wall safe. When experts arrive to open the safe and examine its contents, they make an astonishing discovery. There, inside, is a handwritten manuscript bearing the signature of John H. Watson, MD. The manuscript contains the story of how Sherlock Holmes and Watson traveled to Minnesota to track a murderous arsonist - known only as the Red Demon - who is threatening both Hill and his Great Northern Railway.

Set against the backdrop of the real, devastating Hinckley forest fire of 1894, Sherlock Holmes and the Red Demon is the tense and atmospheric first novel in Larry Millett's classic series of adventures that brought Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson to Minnesota.

©1996 Lawrence Millett (P)2016 Audio-Visceral Productions Historical Mystery Traditional Detectives
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The hesitation was totally unnecessary!!! This is absolutely brilliant from start to finish!!!! I need more; I have read & listened to everything Sir Arthur Conan Doyle; wrote about Sherlock Holmes & of course Dr Watson- brilliantly narrated and written!!! HIGHLY RECOMMEND

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I have been used the enforced lockdown period to build up my Audible collection of Sherlock Holmes pastiche novels. There are a lot to choose from and i was eventually drawn to this one out of curiosity for the setting. The 'Sherlock Holmes in Minnesota' series is fantastic overall and reached some pretty high heights but this is merely a good book, rather than a great one. First then the positives The setting and characters are interesting, and the reason for Holmes agreeing to come to Minnesota plausible and handled well. There are lots of twists and turns and it is fascinating to see Holmes and Watson so far from their natural habitat of smoky London. Watching them adapt whilst trying to solve the mystery of the Red Demon is a big part of the pleasure of the story, I've read other pastiches where they leave the UK and Watson adapts quickly and Holmes struggles but here Holmes is the one who takes it all in his stride.The story moves at a good clip and there is a growing sense of dread which fits the setting well. I do have a couple of small critiques though. Firstly using a real historical event i feel does tie the authors hands a lot, Holmes is engaged to stop a real, historical fire, so you can guess how well that pans out for him. Luckily the author learns from this and the future stories whilst still drawing from historical events are much looser and thus offer more scope for authorial invention. Secondly, whilst Holmes comes off brilliantly Watson veers close to the buffoonish portrayal he has occasionally been saddled with. This is a former army doctor who has seen the world and all it has to offer, but in this story Watson is often presented as the naif Englishman abroad. There is a rather poor scene in the middle where Watson has to fend off the advances of two young women and his reaction is poor from a man who has 'an experience of women which extends over many nations and three separate continents'. Finally the audio narration takes a bit of getting used to. Mr Hendricksen has a good range of american accents and does Holmes rather well but his Watson is, well strange, he does an English accent but the pronunciation is very american, took me out of the story at times. For example he pronounces the word details as detAILS, in the american way rather than DEtails in the British way that Watson would use. I am not sure if it gets better in later books or i just got used to it as i found as i have worked through the series that i have come to find it okay. It helps that later books have more third-person narration, allowing Mr Hendrickson to use his native voice, rather than having Watson narrate the whole thing.

Overall then if you like Holmesian pastiche this is is worth checking out. The best of the series comes later when Shadwell Rafferty is introduced in the next book, an excellent recurring character who has real chemistry with Holmes and Watson. It is not essential to start here, you could go straight to book two without missing too much but i think there is more than enough in this one to make it worth investigating.

A solid start to an excellent series

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Great plot and storyline. Narration good. Kept me intrigued for hours. Another classic Sherlock case.

Worth a listen

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a really good listen, an enjoyable addition to the Sherlock Holmes stories. well worth it

really good story

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A great book, in the tradition of Conan Doyle. Well worth embarking upon this Western adventure with our well known two London gentlemen.

I was a little sceptical, but there was no need.

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Sucked into the story, many twists and turns. Faithful to ACD style of stories. Vivid descriptions, good fun!

Thoroughly enjoyed it

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