Rating: 
Summary: Mildly amusing, well researched but too long winded.
Review: And why does everything in Minnesota have to be so left-wing political?What are the odds of not one, but two, prominent homosexuals in the Twin Cities in the 1890's? Only about 1,000,000 to one. And why the unnecessary jab at the Jesuits? The author obviously projects himself into the role of the protaganist. The book also goes to great lengths to puff up the golden days of newspapers; the author's day job. And here's a question: Does the estate of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle get royalities for the use of Sherlock Holmes character or is it in the public domain? I'm sure the author is a law-abiding citizen who wants to protect property rights of the creative class. No anarchist he. I suppose it will sell in the People's Republic of Minnesota but not much elsewhere.
Rating: 
Summary: Best Millett Book Yet
Review: Bring us more Shadwell Rafferty and George Washington Thomas. This dynamic duo has captured my imagination. I found myself torn between reading the footnotes and reading the story. I finally gave up and read all the footnotes through from beginning to end, even when I didn't know what they related to in the story. The history in this book is fascinating and I admire Millett's ability to turn his in-depth factual knowledge of the Twin Cities into a highly entertaining and deftly plotted mystery. There are surprising twists that I never saw coming, thorough characterizations, and--pleasingly--the emotional quality of the characters shines through without the restraints of Holmes' and Watson's prescripted personalities. Their minor involvement felt just right--enough to thread this book in with the series, but also enough to bring in the worldly knowledge that Rafferty wouldn't have. Highly entertaining. Millett has found the perfect heroes for the Gilded Age. Please give us more!
Rating:
Summary: An Added perspective
Review: Despite a typo in the first sentence of the book, a definite turnoff, this is an interesting and entertaining tale in the usual Millett Minneapolis setting. I like Millett's style of writing. The use of historical figures such as James McPharland and the Molly Macguires lends an added perspective to his tales, as do the references to long forgotten places in Minneapolis and St. Paul. I am almost tempted to read Lost Twin Cities which, I suspect, is one of his works. I have read all four of his Sherlock Holmes novels and look forward to the next.
Rating: 
Summary: Not Millett's Best
Review: Disappointing. Sherlock Holmes basically disappears from the book - except for the stupid diary form that is practically unreadable - and Shadwell Rafferty does not take the stage. The narration might as well be from a newspaper - no humor, no real way to identify with the characters. He has no alternate narrator to take the place of Watson, and that reduces his usually wonderful book plots to dust.
Rating:
Summary: Sherlock Holmes and the missing character
Review: How Sherlock Holmes' name can be used in the title with good faith is outside my understanding. I've read all of Millett's "Holmes" books, and this story is not only the most tedious, the most uninspiring and the least exciting, it is also the most non-Holmes mystery. We really only experience his presence toward the end of the novel, and then it is still only a shell of the Holmes we've seen from Millett in the past.
Shadwell Rafferty is a respectable character, but he is no Holmes. Please, next time just give us a real title like "Shadwell Rafferty and the Englishmen." At least that would be fair warning.
Rating:
Summary: Sherlock Holmes and the missing character
Review: How Sherlock Holmes' name can be used in the title with good faith is outside my understanding. I've read all of Millett's "Holmes" books, and this story is not only the most tedious, the most uninspiring and the least exciting, it is also the most non-Holmes mystery. We really only experience his presence toward the end of the novel, and then it is still only a shell of the Holmes we've seen from Millett in the past.
Shadwell Rafferty is a respectable character, but he is no Holmes. Please, next time just give us a real title like "Shadwell Rafferty and the Englishmen." At least that would be fair warning.
Rating:
Summary: Sherlock Holmes and the missing character
Review: How Sherlock Holmes' name can be used in the title with good faith is outside my understanding. I've read all of Millett's "Holmes" books, and this story is not only the most tedious, the most uninspiring and the least exciting, it is also the most non-Holmes mystery. We really only experience his presence toward the end of the novel, and then it is still only a shell of the Holmes we've seen from Millett in the past.
Shadwell Rafferty is a respectable character, but he is no Holmes. Please, next time just give us a real title like "Shadwell Rafferty and the Englishmen." At least that would be fair warning.
Rating: 
Summary: Millett is getting worse and worse
Review: I enjoyed "The Red Demon;" I enjoyed "The Ice Palace Murders" much less. I didn't enjoy "The Secret Alliance." I'm a Sherlock Holmes fan, not Shadwell Rafferty, and Millett seems to have become infatuated with his own character to the detriment of involving Holmes. If one is going to write Sherlock Holmes stories, then he needs to write Holmes stories, not give him a secondary role to one's own creation. Millett also seems to be increasingly enamoured with his own knowledge of Twin Cities history, and this sometimes gets in the way. We want Holmes, Mr. Millett, not Rafferty, and if you are going to give a leading role to your own creation, then don't try to allure a readership with mostly false claims about a Sherlock Holmes mystery.
Rating:
Summary: Millett is getting worse and worse
Review: I enjoyed "The Red Demon;" I enjoyed "The Ice Palace Murders" much less. I didn't enjoy "The Secret Alliance." I'm a Sherlock Holmes fan, not Shadwell Rafferty, and Millett seems to have become infatuated with his own character to the detriment of involving Holmes. If one is going to write Sherlock Holmes stories, then he needs to write Holmes stories, not give him a secondary role to one's own creation. Millett also seems to be increasingly enamoured with his own knowledge of Twin Cities history, and this sometimes gets in the way. We want Holmes, Mr. Millett, not Rafferty, and if you are going to give a leading role to your own creation, then don't try to allure a readership with mostly false claims about a Sherlock Holmes mystery.
Rating:
Summary: A disapointing book
Review: I really have to say that I was disapointed with this book. The writing became longwinded and boring, and the story just seemed to drag on and on. Of Millett's four stories, this plot was by far the worst--the whole thing was based on the sexual preferences of two men. The other big problem I have with the Secret Alliance is that it doesn't really involve Holmes at all. The main character is clearly Shadwell Rafferty, which is not exactly what I was expecting. The long portions taken from Watson's diary were added so Millett could call it a Holmes story. The writing from Watson's diary is extremly boring and hard to read, since little of it actually involves the story.
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