MT TBR & then 'sherlockfan' bound !
03/31/07~Shadwell Rafferety(SR), a St. Paul, Minnesota saloonkeeper gets involved trying to solve the murder of a young union activist, who was found hung from a tree with a sign stating "The Secret Alliance Has Spoken"! This takes place across the river in the rough & seedy town of Minneapolis, MN ! SR decides that the more he snoops the more facts he finds out, & the more trouble he stirs up for himself! With Sherlock Holmes(SH) & Dr.John Watson(JW) still involved on a case in New York City, SR finds that both the mayor
and sheriff of Minneapolis are involved in a scam & both are also being blackmailed by someone holding compromising pics of them with 'scarlet women of the night'! SR is told by the sheriff to head back across the brodge to St. Paul or he will be held for the murder of the union man !! SR deduces that his 'detectin' is getting so close that he keeps on! He gets beat up by the police, shoots a local thug put on his tail, but by who? SR finds copies of the delicate pix, finds that the union mans death was because he wanted papermill workers wages increased because of the hazardous conditions in the papermill ! One explosion had already killed over 20 workers!
In the 2nd half of the story SH & Dr.JW finish up in New York City, and join forces with SR & as always the action increases when these 3 are involved in solving the mysterious murder(s)!!
It's a good story, but it doesn't involve the Dynamic Duo enough !
It's fun to meet locals like Joe Shelton, the 'cartman' who emptied privys at night & loaded this 'cargo' on his cart & then dumped it in the river; 'Sid the Ratman' who laid out raps in the alleyways & near trash ! both of these characters saw many things at night that could make them wealthy or dead!!

Thanks so much vc-mike. You know my interests so well.
Wonderful surprise parcel for me today.
Have a sneeky felling I might have read this one before - unless Sidney the rat man features in other adventures. One can hardly forget a name like that even if the entire plot has slipped your mind.
Watch this space.

Well, very sorry vc-mike, that this book and a couple of others has been buried in amid another carton of unopened boxes since our last move. Makes me sound most ungrateful to vc-mike. I'm not, just congenitally disorganised - sorry.
I've read this with a great deal of enjoyment. IMHO Larry is one of the better Doyle wannabe-s as he captures the essential elements of Watson well. (Much better than Hollywood film makers but don't let me start on that.) This is a complicated and quite long read as the scene keeps changing and one needs to be fully alert to follow what is happening where. The story is greatly ehanced by the historical additions in the appendixes. They certainly add to setting the tale in its proper time.
I've certainly enjoyed Millett's characters very much; he paints them well. Shadwell Rafferty is a likeable man and even Sid the Ratman has his own charm.

I'm sending this book off to one of the members of the Southern Cross Book Exchange after first checking because although there were a number of Sherlock realted books on her wishlist I didn't have those so needed to discuss whether this one would meet expectations. I certainly hope it does.

Posting to Jennymidget as part of Southern Cross Book Exchange, together with a couple of papers from the Northern Musgraves Sherlock Holmes Society that she might find to her taste - says this writer hopefully.

Thank you very much Sherlockfan!