Ellery Queen’s Mystery Magazine. Vol. 121, No. 2. Whole No. 738, February 2003

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Kicking off our yearly celebration of the birthday of Sherlock Holmes is a cowboy whodunit featuring some early fans of the great sleuth. “It was a real hoot to write, and I’m sure Big Red and Old Red haven’t ridden off into the sunset for good,” says author Steve Hockensmith.

   The Strand Magazine

   George Newnes Ltd.

   3 to 13 Southampton Street

   Strand, London, England

Dear Mr. Holmes,

This is my third crack at writing this letter, and by God I’m going to get through it this time come Hell or high water. If Gabriel himself were to come down and blow on his bugle before I’m done, I’d just turn around and tell him, “Hold your horn, Gabe, I’m writing a letter to Mr. Sherlock Holmes.”

Part of my difficulty with this chore is that my book learning amounts to five years in a country school and two years clerking for a granary in Peabody, Kansas. And my brother Gustav’s got four years less on the schooling and not a day wielding a clerk’s pencil, yet he’s trying to tell me how to write this letter.

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