Thirteen books were selected as finalists for the 2009 Parmly Billings Library High Plains Book Awards.

All of the books were published for the first time in 2008 and written by a regional author or writing team, or is a literary work that examines and reflects life on the High Plains.

"Sherlock Holmes: The Montana Chronicles" by John Fitzpatrick was a finalist in the "First Book" category.

"Sherlock Holmes: The Montana Chronicles"

Author: John H. Watson, M.D.

Editor: John S. Fitzpatrick

Publisher Riverbend Publishing

DEE ANN REDMAN For The Gazette

Sherlock Holmes has embarked on many an adventure never dreamed of by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle.

Few literary characters have had such a successful afterlife, with appearances in books and stories the world over.

One of the latest of these appearances shows up in the work Helena writer John S. Fitzpatrick - who maintains the traditional homage of listing Dr. Watson as writer and himself as editor - in "Sherlock Holmes: The Montana Chronicles."

These long-lost adventures were supposedly discovered in a dusty old safe in the basement of the Hearst Free Library in Anaconda, and Fitzpatrick took on the job of preparing them for the world.

The chronicles are a collection of four of Holmes and Watson's adventures set in and around the Butte region in the 1890s.

What would bring these staunch Londoners to the young state?

In the first tale, "The Opera House Murder," they are sent to assist the son of a London client. The young man had been performing in a play that called for him to shoot a fellow actor with a revolver, but apparently someone had switched out the blanks for the real thing.

In "The Tammany Affair," Holmes returns to conduct an investigation for no less a personage than Copper King Marcus Daly. In this story, naturally set in Butte and Anaconda, someone is trying to prevent Daly from racing his famous horse, Tammany

Head farther down the Pintlar scenic route to the Georgetown Lake area for "The Ghosts of Red Lion," where a gold mine is losing precious metal while ghostly apparitions keep the superstitious miners away.

"The Mysterious Woman" finds Dr. Watson's medical skills called upon to treat a miner's wife in Southern Cross, now mostly a ghost town near Georgetown Lake, for her strange, trance-like spells that may require Holmes to fully understand.

One of the great charms for a Montanan in reading this book is the interweaving of historical figures, places and events into the narrative. Fitzpatrick has included period photographs from museums and historical societies around the state that beautifully evoke the events of his tales.

A true Baker Street Irregular would decry some of the elements in the pastiche.

Fitzpatrick makes a good effort to emulate the Victorian style and language, and his characterization of Holmes is well done.

On the other hand, some anachronisms sneak in, Watson's narrations seem too Americanized, and the mysteries are not so tangled as a Holmes story ought to be.

Still, the adventures are lively, and there's much to enjoy, especially for us locals.

Dee Ann Redman is the Library Information Systems coordinator at Billings Parmly Library. At present, she is helping with both the High Plains Book Awards as well as The Big Read.

If you go For tickets and more information about the Oct. 2, High Plains Book Award banquet at Montana State University Billings, call Billings Parmly Library at 657-8292 or visit highplainsbookawards.org/. The seventh annual High Plains BookFest will focus on Native American culture, history, literature and art. Presented by YMCA Writer's Voice and the Billings Cultural Partners, the bookfest features public readings and panel discussions on Oct. 2 and 3 at sites around Billings. It also kicks off The Big Read with Louise Erdrich's novel "Love Medicine.".