Western, Mystery, Comedy

The Case of the Vanishing Prairie is a comic addition to the classic Sherlock Holmes detective tales. Dr. Watson, long-time companion of Sherlock Holmes, leaves the renowned super sleuth to strike out on his own. Seeking a quiet life in the Old West, he finds himself engulfed in a series of comic disasters. After a bank robbery wipes out his retirement nest egg, Watson has to seek employment—as a personal veterinarian to the area's leading rancher (also its leading rustler, as it turns out).

Watson's new career starts rather badly when he inadvertently drives a prize bull off the ranch. But Watson manages to overcome his embarrassment because he is smitten by the rancher's gorgeous niece. And to woo her away from straight shooter Wyatt Wayne, he decides to impress her by becoming a master sleuth himself.

Who robbed the bank, who is causing cowboys to disappear, and who or what is causing sizeable neck bites among the locals? Can Watson, without Holmes's expert guidance, solve all this just by himself? And who is this Old Timer who turns up mysteriously?

Author John Parr, literary critic, lives in Winnipeg with his cat Daisy.
He wrote Jim Tweed, a novel about a boy coming of age in the Winnipeg of the 1940s.