Sherlock Holmes and the Ice Palace Murders

the long version

Sherlock Holmes rides again in this delightful mystery, based on another newly discovered manuscript. The year is 1896, and St. Paul's magnificent Winter Carnival is underway when Holmes and Watson are summoned by the city's most powerful man, railroad magnate James J. Hill. It seems a wealthy young man has disappeared on the eve of his wedding, and his fiancee has suspiciously discarded her wedding dress. After a grisly discovery in the carnival's ice palace leads to a flurry of clues, Holmes is on the case. His pursuit of the murderer takes him through the highest echelons of St. Paul society, over the frozen Mississippi River, and into cahoots with one Shadwell Rafferty, a gregarious saloonkeeper and part-time private investigator whose quick wit and fast thinking make him a formidable rival and an invaluable ally. A splendid sequel to Sherlock Holmes and the Red Demon, and written in the same deliciously authentic Sherlockian style, this latest adventure offers an exhilarating portrait of America on the verge of a new century as well as an intriguing mystery that is nothing short of truly chilling. (back cover)