Black and White and Reds All Over

Thank goodness Cameron Hughes has interviewed Northern California novelist Steve Hockensmith for CHUD.com. I didn’t know, until reading their exchange, that Hockensmith’s delightful western historical series starring the Amlingmeyer brothers, Gustav “Old Red” and Otto “Big Red,” might be bound for Boot Hill. But there’s the warning, right out front in Hughes’ introduction: “[Hockensmith’s] books don’t sell as well as he and his publisher want and the future of the books is uncertain.” That’s unfortunate, for I agree with Hughes’ assessment that “His books are funny, original, and rather than plots driving the characters, the characters drive the plot. They paint a great picture of the old American West and manage not to romanticize it while not making it overly dour either.” You get a feel for that, as Hockensmith answers questions concerning his genre labeling (“I don’t write Westerns!”), the interest in Sherlock Holmes that he shares with the Amlingmeyers, his attraction to Pinkerton detectives (one of whom makes an appearance in this year’s On the Wrong Track), and his masochistic fondness for research.

The whole interview can be found here.