Sherlock Holmes

Created by: Sir Arthur Conan Doyle

Does Sherlock Holmes even need an introduction? He's apparently the most adapted human literature character across TV and movies. He is also quite iconic that you can recognize his look by giving a character a hat, a magnifying glass, and maybe a pipe. It was Dupin that started the detective fiction genre but it was essentially, Holmes who popularized it and influenced most of the genre that came out afterward.

But if somehow, you don't know who Sherlock Holmes is... he is a "consulting private detective" from 221b Baker Street. Who helps clients and the police on cases that are hard to explain and puzzling. He is a master of deduction, as he is able to retrieve information about a certain person by observing his appearance for details we easily miss. He also boasts an encyclopedic knowledge of past crimes and cases. He plays the violin and is fond of classical music and does chemical experiments in his spare time or when stuck in a case. We meet and get to know Holmes through the eyes of Dr. John Watson, a veteran who is Holmes' roommate-turned-loyal-best-friend and biographer who chronicles Holmes' adventures.

Most of Holmes' stories are more of an adventure/thriller than an outright mystery book. Not that there is no mystery to solve, there is a mystery to solve but the plot is more akin to a procedural and a manhunt as opposed to say a whodunnit which is more of Agatha Christie's thing. They are fun though and you can see why these stories essentially became the formula for the genre as a whole.

Books

Sir Arthur Conan Doyle has wrote written 4 main books and 5 short story compilations featuring the great detective.

A Study in Scarlet

FINISHED

The story of how Holmes and Watson met each other and their first adventure undertaking a mysterious murder with the culprit leaving a message in the crime scene.

A good start and introduction to Holmes and Watson and their dynamic. The first half is a really fun gripping adventure and Holmes is just such a fascinating and fun character to read and just like Watson, you are hooked and want to follow how he will unravel a seemingly difficult case.

However, once you get to the second part and the mystery is essentially solved. That's when the book gets kind of difficult to read, I actually read this book around the pandemic but only the first half cause the second part where we go through the culprit's backstory is kind of a slog to go through. i don't think it's bad now that i've read it again and it got some nice suspenseful thriller but it felt a bit too long and just doesn't mesh well with the adventure vibe of the first half.

In the end, it's still a fun read and an important book in fiction as this sets the template which inspired proceeding crime and mystery authors giving us the beauty that is detective fiction.

The Sign of Four

FINISHED

Mary Morstan has been receiving letters and gifts of pearl from someone anonymous who in their latest gift eventually requests to meet her claiming that she was "wronged". She asks the assistance of Holmes and Watson to accompany her in meeting this stranger.

This essentially follow the formula established in the previous book but on a much grander scale and with a better and shorter, culprit flashback in the end. There's some really intense and fun sequences aside from Holmes inspecting crime scenes, there's a thrilling chase scene where they track the culprit's scent thanks to the best boi, Toby. And the climax of the book is this high-adrenaline chase boat chase. The book slows down afterwards and that's where you get the backstory which honestly is still a bit of a slog and has some poorly aged depictions but its at least shorter. Additionally, Watson admiring Mary is also really heartwarming to read and there are passages that really just made me go "awwwww~".

It's a solid entry, i was thinking of giving this just 3.5 stars but writing and reminiscing about it, there's quite a lot of things put into this book, mystery, romance, action, It's really impressive so i'm bumping it to 4... it's just that the end really slows it down and you just wanna get through the explanation and all. Also, Holmes' disguise ability is really cartoony no matter how hard Watson tries to sell it...

The Adventure of Sherlock Holmes

READING

This is a compilation of short-stories of Holmes' cases. I'm just gonna divide this review into subsections for each short story.

A Scandal in Bohemia

The hereditary King of Bohemia implores the help of Sherlock Holmes to recover a photograph of him and his past affair, Irene Adler. Since she has blackmailed him by threatening to send the photograph to the family of the princess that the young king is engaged to.

We have Holmes' magical disguises for this one again but i appreciate the direction of where the book went in the end. It makes sense why Irene Adler seems to be one of the characters that made quite the impression and has been present for most of the popular adaptations.

The Red-headed League

Holmes' client for this story is Jabez Wilson, a pawnbroker with fiery red hair who is having a hard time making ends meet. His assistant informs him of an ad in the newspaper of the Red-headed League which were apparently hiring a red-head. Wilson, though reluctant at first eventually applied to make money. He was immediately hired when they saw his red hair but the job turned out to be a strange task of writing a copy of the Encyclopedia in a room without leaving until the end of his shift. After 8 weeks, The league seemingly dissolved without notice.

This was actually spoiled to me by a cool Ted-Ed video but it was still fun to revisit and has a good twist.

A Case of Identity

Mary Sutherland is left puzzled, when her enigmatic fiancé suddenly disappeared on the day of their wedding. She asks Holmes to help her find him.

This story is the equivalent of a menial side quest in an RPG. It is so far the most obvious case and there's really not much to it either. It doesn't even resolve properly for Mary and i feel bad for her.

The Boscombe Valley Mystery

In Boscombe Valley, John Turner is a rich businessman from Australia, who lives with his daughter Alice and a fellow Australian, Charles McCarthy, who in turn has a son, James McCarthy. One day, the body of Charles McCarthy was found dead and beaten. Witnesses point to James McCarthy as the murderer as he was seen going after Charles McCarthy and held a gun while doing so. Alice, however, believes James is innocent and has employed Holmes to prove that he is.

Decent but a predictable case, it is an early version of a whodunnit so there's really not much done in obfuscating the culprit and there's really no pool of suspects to begin with so it really is easy to solve. I feel like Yokomizo Seishi was inspired by this since there are themes of family and a dark secret within one which is a constant theme of his works.

The Five Orange Pips

Holmes' help is desperately requested by John Openshaw, who shares a haunting story of his uncle dying a few months after receiving a letter with five orange pips. Years later, his father, also suffered the same fate when he received a similar letter and now John has also received such letter...

This was kind of dull and there's not much to the mystery. Then it got worse when the case took a really tragic turn and had a somewhat anti-climatic ending. It shows that Holmes doesn't make the right decision sometimes but yeah it's a drag of a story...

The Man with The Twisted Lip

While Watson was fetching his wife's friend's husband, Isa Whitney, who was missing and now found in an opium den, Watson stumbles into an undercover Holmes who was also there to gather information on his case regarding Neville St. Clair, a man who has also gone missing and was last seen by his wife. He was apparently in the second floor of the opium den and looked terrified. The room was later found to be the lair of a beggar, a man with a twisted lip, Hugh Boone, and his husband was nowhere to be found...

This is similar to the previous case, A Case of Identity but slightly better and with more flavor. The twist is less predictable this time but still quite an overall dull case nonetheless...

The Adventure of the Blue Carbuncle

Holmes is entrusted by Commissioner Peterson a battered old hat which he found along with a Christmas Goose after stopping a fight. Holmes deduces a couple conclusions about the identity of its owner when suddenly the commissioner returns and reveals that he discovered a gem within the Goose. It turns out to be the "Blue Carbuncle" which was reported to be stolen from the Countess of Morcar. And so begins Holmes and Watson's investigation in tracking the owner of the hat and how the missing gem ended up in the goose's crop.

A really fun story, i quite like the chase and the unraveling of what really happened to the gem. There's also a fascinating ending where Holmes was presented a dilemma and shows a bit of a more human aspect of his character. its small scale and its mystery being kind of barebone makes it come off a bit weaker than something like The Sign of Four but i think this is the strongest short story so far in the compilation.

The Adventure of the Speckled Band

Helen Stoner, the client for this story, tells her tale about her family, how her mother was married to a Dr. Grimesby Roylott, a man of a former aristocratic family riddled with anger issues and how her twin sister, Julia was killed before her wedding day with her last words mentioning that a "speckled band" had killed her.

i have vague and hazy memories of reading this back in high school since there was an edition of the Adventure of Sherlock Holmes there. So i remember the twist and some of the things that happened but still it's a decent revisit. i think the appealing part of this story is the ingenious (though honestly, impractical) method used for the murder. This is probably one of the stories that started that trope. Plus, it's also somewhat of a locked room mystery which are fun. And the part where Holmes and Watson were waiting to get the jump on the culprit in the darkness was also really intense and well-done. There is some suspension of disbelief needed though to be sold on the villain's method and why it somehow worked but that's kind of inevitable for most of detective fiction.

The Adventure of the Engineer's Thumb

Watson receives a patient, Victor Hatherley, a hydraulic engineer, whose thumb appears to have been cut off. After cleaning and applying a new bandage to the wound, Watson bought the engineer to Holmes so that they can hear Hatherley's story...

There was no mystery in this book at all... aside from the initial curiosity about the missing thumb, a major chunk of this story is pretty much a flashback on how Hatherley lost his thumb, the resolution to it was a bit unsatisfying and Holmes didn't really make any interesting deductions and such. His presence was barely felt in this one

The Adventure of the Noble Bachelor

reading...

The Adventure of the Beryl Coronet

to-read

The Adventure of the Copper Beeches