BOOKS: The Black Dove, Steve Hockensmith (2008)

Third in the Amlingmeyer Brothers mystery series.

One of the nice things about having protagonists who are itinerant cowboys / ranch hands / laborers is that Hockensmith gets to use a different setting for each installment in the series. Holmes on the Range took place on a ranch; On the Wrong Track found the brothers working as railroad detectives; and in The Black Dove, Gustav and Otto are in San Francisco. To be precise, they are in "the most sinister section of the world's wickedest city" -- Chinatown.

It's 1893, and Chinatown is controlled by ruthless gangs; so long as their problems don't spill into the rest of the city, the police mostly leave them alone. The Amlingmeyers find themselves in Chinatown after the death of their friend, Dr. Chan (whom we met in On the Wrong Track), which the police write off as a suicide. Gustav's not buying that for a minute, and following in the footsteps of his hero, Sherlock Holmes, sets his own "deducifying" skills to solving the murder.

Along the way, they'll cross paths with vicious Chinese ganglords, visit a magnificently appointed bordello, and discover the secret of the mysterious Black Dove. Their old friend Diana Corvus plays a key supporting role, and she's a fine addition to the series; it's fun to watch how flustered the brothers get in the presence of a pretty woman.

Hockensmith's portrayal of attitudes towards the Chinese is appropriate for the era without being gratuitously offensive for contemporary readers; he does all he can to diminish the impact of the racist attitudes, largely by making Gustav and Otto a bit more open-minded than most men of their era and by putting the most egregious lines in the mouths of the biggest villains.

As always, Otto's narration -- he writes these stories down with hopes of selling them, playing Watson to Gustav's Holmes -- has enough period flavor to be convincing, but doesn't go so far overboard as to be distracting or irritating. The brothers are a likable team; their relationship, full of brotherly squabbling and teasing, is thoroughly convincing. There are perhaps a few too many minor characters and suspects this time around, and things get a bit confusing near the end. Still, even if it's not quite up to the level of the first two volumes, The Black Dove is a fine piece of entertainment, and I look forward to the further adventures of the Amlingmeyers.