Sherlock Holmes and the Secret Alliance

The latest in the series by author, Larry Millett, however the title is a bit misleading because the book is mostly about Shadwell Rafferty and Holmes and Watson don't come along until the mystery is almost solved.

The most annoying part of this book was that, to inform the readers about the activities of Holmes and Watson, the author included "excerpts from Watson's journal." These excerpts were extremely hard to read because it was almost as if Watson was using shorthand, referring to Holmes as H, Rafferty as SR, leaving out words, regarding as re, instead of and, he used &. It was just a bit diffucult to stay focused on what the author was trying to explain. Also, instead of being a first person account, like the other 3 books, this one was in third person which worked nicely.

The mystery in this book begins when Michael O'Donnell is killed and hung in front of Minneapolis mayor's, A. Adams, house, naked, with a sign around his neck saying the murder was committed by the "Secret Alliance," which was well known in Minneapolis as an anti-union group. There is also a rat trap with cheese found beneath the body, left by Sid the Ratman. This tale turns out to be a study of the struggle for unions in Minneapolis at the turn of the century, President McKinley's trip to Minneapolis in 1899, and the corruption rampant in the city during the reign of A. Adams.

It also explains how Minneapolis lost the title to biggest flour producer to Buffalo, New York because Buffalo had better waterways. This was certainly an interesting book, but the journal entries made it hard to follow and there was a typo in the first line of the book. Final Grade: 2.9 stars.