by Steve Hokensmith

Minotaur Books, $24.99, 324 pages

Big Red and Old Red are brothers, cowboys, and wannabe detectives. They receive an invitation to attend the 1893 World’s Columbian Exposition in Chicago where McClure’s Magazine is sponsoring a mystery solving contest honoring famous detective Sherlock Holmes. And so the adventure begins in Steve Hockensmith’s //World’s Greatest Sleuth!//, the latest in the Holmes on the Range Mystery series.

Detective teams from around the world arrive to compete for four days, solving clues, searching through exhibits, and finding hidden prizes. The contest has barely begun when the organizer is found dead under suspicious circumstances. Big Red and Old Red are convinced it is murder. Could it be a fellow contestant or one of the strange bearded men who appear around every corner?

Readers will feel like they are running the race right alongside the cowboys. The clues each team picks up during the scavenger hunt are made for the characters to solve. Readers would need specific knowledge of the Exposition to understand the places alluded to in the clues. Hockensmith has created genuinely fun characters that fans will want to see more of in the future.

Reviewed by Kathryn Franklin