Sherlock Holmes and the Red Demon

September 2, 1996
Placing Sherlock Holmes in the pineries of Northern Minnesota in 1894 may not have been a three-pipe problem for Minneapolis architecture columnist Millett (Lost Twin Cities). However, there is little here but smoke and facade. The real and devastating Hinckley, Minn., fire of 1894 serves as the historical backdrop when Holmes is hired by railroad tycoon James J. Hill to find the Red Demon, the man "who is trying to burn down one of his railroads." After arriving in Hinckley to investigate, Holmes and Watson are attacked by feared logger Jean Baptiste LeGrande and rescued by Tom "Boston" Corbett, who claims to have killed John Wilkes Booth. The Town Marshall is murdered before clues lead the London duo to identify the Red Demon and the injury that motivates his actions. The final duel between Holmes and the Red Demon on a burning trestle is gripping, but this action is too little too late. Millett capitalizes on expected Sherlockian gimmicks ("parlor tricks" of deduction, hints of unrecorded grotesque cases, Holmes's masterful disguises and Watson's pomposity) but fails to probe beneath the surface of Holmes's popular image.

Narrator Steve Hendrickson deftly captures the tone of this story, based on a real 1894 event, the raging fires in Minnesota's piney woods. Sherlock Holmes is asked by railroad tycoon James J. Hill to investigate threats to his Great Northern Railway by an unknown person who's nicknamed the Red Demon. Millett's characters are wonderful eccentrics who come alive in Hendrickson's lively presentation. Most entertaining is his rendering of the good-natured sparring between Holmes and Watson as they "go native" in dress and speech. When they close in on the perpetrator, they must visit Mother Mary's brothel, which is Hendrickson's finest moment. The closing battle between Holmes and the Red Demon on a railroad trestle offers listeners a delicious sense of déjˆ vu. S.G.B. © AudioFile 2016, Portland, Maine