Return to the Wild Frontier

Foster Keehoe, a trapper running a trading post after losing his leg to a bear. He taught the much younger Holmes sign reading, and Holmes taught him to read and write. He won Holmes' respect and admiration. 14 years later, Holmes receives a letter from Keehoe asking him to find his daughter and bring her to America. He had married an English woman who left him taking their infant daughter back to England with her. In the intervening years, Keehoe has since found gold and become a wealthy man. It's no difficult task for Holmes to find Hilda Keehoe; however, the difficulty begins on the journey to America as Hilda is nothing like her father and has no admirable qualities whatsoever. Even poor old Watson is at his tether with her. She's greedy, obnoxious and selfish. When they finally reach Phoenix, Arizona, they learn that Keehoe is dead - tortured and murdered by thieves looking for the map to his gold mine. Hilda of course is devastated at the thought of losing the money, while Holmes and Watson are more concerned about apprehending Keehoe's killers. Holmes finds the map cleverly concealed by Keehoe and decides the only way to catch the killers is to draw them out with the lure of gold, so undertakes to find the mine. Hilda insists on coming along, despite them trying to dissuade her. It's the journey from hell for the two Englishmen until in a stopover at a small town, Watson rescues a half breed Indian boy from being maltreated by a brutal blacksmith. In the fight that follows, the blacksmith is killed. Hilda hires the destitute widow to be her personal maid on the journey. While Holmes is not happy at the thought of another female travelling companion, Watson convinces him that with Emma Hancock on hand, they won't have to deal with Hilda and her tantrums. That's enough to change his mind. Spotted Deer tags along in the hope he can save Watson's life in return for saving his. Like the first book there's a lot of humour, action, and adventure, and there is definitely no romance for Holmes in this one. Hilda would turn any man into a bachelor! Even fans of traditional Holmes stories will like this one. Holmes is at his best and worst.