Sherlock Holmes and the Rune Stone Mystery

This is the 3rd in a quartet of books about the North American adventures of the famous Sir Conan Doyle character, Sherlock Holmes. This is probably one of the better done of the non-SCD Holmes, particularly because it is set near to home, in the Midwest.

The major addition to this series is Shadwell Rafferty, a saloon owner in St. Paul, MN, whose deductive skills are as honed as Holmes. It's an interesting series because the author, Larry Millett, is a newspaper writer for one of the papers in MN, and so he includes many interesting facts, and prominent people from there during the turn of the century. For example, on their first journey to the "Icy North", and their subsequent journeys, Holmes and Watson stay at the house of railroad baron, James J. Hill.

The notes at the end of his books are particularly interesting because they describe in detail how it is possible for Holmes to be in MN at the time, and they also explain the historic references. All of the books are "narrated" by Watson, and the language is quite similar to the original books.

In this book, Holmes is quite bored in England, until he reads of a rune stone found on a farm near Alexandria MN. He had had the opportunity to study authentic rune stones in Sweden. (Rune stones being stones which contain writings of the Vikings around and before the 14th century, which were written on stones) This is controversial because if found to be real, it would prove that the Vikings had actually reached North America and managed to make it all the way over to MN.

Holmes receives a messenger from King Oskar of Sweden who wants Holmes to go and find out if the rune stone is real. As soon as they arrive in Alexandria, however, they find out that the owner of the RS was murdered and the rune stone has disappeared. Holmes, along with the help of Rafferty, who coincidentally is also in Alexandria, soon uncovers a plot by one of Holmes' former enemies, Mary Robinson, to defraud a wealthy man in Chicago by selling him the fake rune stone to pay off her dead husband's debts.

This very nicely follows the format of a typical Holmes novel, with Holmes correctly making wild assumptions based on his observations, and Watson following along to record the actions of the immortal Holmes. As I said before, the addition of MN history makes the book very interesting, and it is a quick read, or fairly quick, that will not make you regret reading it. Final Grade: 4.2 stars (I might add that the 2nd book SH and the Ice Palace Murders is a better book)