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.

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 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 it's 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...

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

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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...

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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...

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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.

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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.

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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

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The Adventure of the Noble Bachelor

Lord Robert St. Simon, a son of a Duke, is married to an american women, Hatty Doran. However during the wedding reception the bride left and has gone missing. Lord St. Simon turns to Holmes to find out what happened to his wife.

Another missing person case, although this one has some flavor as well compared to A Case of Identity, i think it pales a bit in comparison to The Man with The Twisted Lip, there's really not much in this case as well and the resolution feels really underwhelming and i feel bad for Lord St. Simon in the end, though i guess everyone involved really felt horrible in the end but the Lord St. Simon in particular got really done dirty.

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The Adventure of the Beryl Coronet

A banker, Alexander Holder, was temporarily entrusted the Beryl Coronet by an important noble client requesting a loan. Fearing that the coronet is not safe in the bank, he brings it home whose residents are his servants, his son, Arthur and his niece, Mary. One night, Alexander is awakened by a loud noise and found Arthur holding the coronet with 3 gems missing. Convinced of Arthur's guilt, he accuses him and tries to get more information out of him. Arthur refuses to do so and is detained and searched but no gem was found on his person. Desperate, Alexander rushes to Holmes for help.

Actually another pretty good early whodunnit like Boscombe Valley Mystery, but i like this one better since the whole setup is more interesting and the twist was quite good. I wouldn't say it's solvable and fair but it's a reveal that works well for the overall themes the story presents. A strong conteneder as well and it's up there with The Adventure of the Blue Carbuncle.

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The Adventure of the Copper Beeches

Holmes is asked for his advice by Violet Hunter whether or not to take a governess (something like a babysitter and a private tutor for a kid) which pays a lot compared to the average job but she must fulfill peculiar requests from her employer, Jephro Rucastle, like requring her to wear any dress they want her to wear and to cut her hair short. Violet reluctantly accepts in the end and Holmes informs her that she can contact him in case of trouble. A week later, Holmes receives an urgent letter from her requesting his presence...

a very strong short story to end the book. It's a toss-up between this and The Adventure of the Blue Carbuncle for the best short-story. It's a genuinely tense and engaging, the mystery was just so surreal and strange, multiple what-ifs were running through my mind on what was going on with the Rucastle household. Violet Hunter, is a great protagonist, her tales of her stay were the most thrilling parts. So yeah, aside from the horrible dog violence and the small scale and length of the case, it's a pretty good read!

Now being somewhat popular and well-known, Holmes' adventures continue with another compilation of short-stories.

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The Silver Blaze

The popular horse known as the "Silver Blaze" is missing. Its owner tasked Sherlock Holmes to solve the mystery behind its disappearance and the death of its trainer.

Pretty decent read and i really like the solution in this one, it is a nice simple twist. Very reminiscent of "Murders in the Rue Morgue" by Edgar Allan Poe.

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The Yellow Face

Grant Munro's wife, Effie, has suddenly become secretive after requesting a big amount of money from him. He finds out that his wife goes to a neighboring house and sees an ominous mysterious figure with a yellow face looking from its window.

This was teased by Watson as one of the stories where Holmes "failed" despite arriving at the right conclusion and i do love that humbling aspect of this story for Holmes. But it's really one of the weaker stories so far, there's not much to this case in the end.

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The Stockbroker's Clerk

Hall Pycroft, a young clerk is hired by a man named Harry Pinner, Pycroft starts to get suspicious of the strange business of his job, with the office being mostly empty and the suspicious identity of his employer. He requests the guidance of Holmes to shed light on his curious case.

This is a mystery in the vein of The Red-headed League but it's comparatively weaker and more dull. There's kind of less intrigue here and it doesn't have a climactic end.

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The "Gloria Scott"

Holmes recounts the case that led him to become a detective. Victor Trevor, a friend of Holmes in his university days, and the mysterious paranoia and the eventual death of his father.

Another case where Holmes feels like an afterthought. He makes some deductions at the start of his story but the rest and the most intriguing mystery is quickly solved and the rest is your usual backstory. i actually had some difficulty getting through the backstory for this one since it's quite boring.

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The Musgrave Ritual

Reginal Musgrave, an acquaintance of Holmes in his university, needs his help in solving the disappearance of his former long-time butler, Brunton, who was fired for secretly reading the cryptic poem of question and answers that is passed through the Musgrave family. His disappearance was shortly followed by another. His ex and a maid of Musgrave's, Rachel Howells.

A case with some nice puzzle solving. Really enjoyed the mystery in this one and the way it was solved was engaging and fun to read through.

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The Reigate Puzzle

After solving an arduous case, Watson brings Holmes to the home of his friend, Colonel Hayter, to let him rest and recover. Holmes' rest was cut short however when they hear about a recent burglary in the neighborhood which was followed by a murder the next day that is said to have been done by the same burglar.

Another pretty fun case. I love how mischievous Holmes is in this case, as he pulls some really amusing tricks to catch the culprit.

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The Crooked Man

Holmes visits Watson in the middle of the night to invite him to join in his investigation of the murder of one Colonel James Barclay. They found out that Nancy, Barclay's wife, had met a mysterious crooked man before the night of the murder...

The murder in this one feels a bit clunky, it had some clues that just feels unnecessary and forced though the resolution and the twist alright, though a bit tired especially since the previous stories had used a similar twist. It's all in all a mixed bag.

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The Resident Patient

Dr . Percy Trevelyan shares to Holmes and Watson his tale of meeting Mr. Blessington who offered to invest in him while he was a struggling practitioner, he offered to take care all his expenses and a building where he can run a consulting room, in exchange of taking a share of the earnings and to be a "resident patient" due to his weak heart. Dr Trevelyan agrees and all is well until Blessington starts to become more and more paranoid...

this was ok... it had a resolution in the same vein as that of the previous story which made this feel a bit repetetive but the overall setup was done cleaner so i guess it's a half-star better than "The Crooked Man" but overall, still ehh...

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The Greek Interpreter

Homes introduces Watson to his brother, Mycroft Holmes. Mycroft then brings a case to Sherlock's attention, the case of Mr. Melas, a greek interpreter, who unknowingly received a shady job of translating a beaten and emaciated greek prisoner to his kidnapper, a man called Harold Latimer. The Holmes brothers and Watson begins their hunt for Latimer in hopes of rescuing his tortured prisoner.

a disappointing story that started out quite strongly with the introduction of Mycroft and his bizarre Diogenes Club (which is one club i would like to be a part of, it's really a club for introverts). And his interaction with Sherlock and how they exchange deductions was really delightful to read. And then we got to the case which started so strongly as well with a tense and engaging narration. The whoee story falls apart though once we get to the search and resolution, posting an adverstisement and not guarding Melas was a definitely a choice and the overall ending was just unsatisfying.

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The Naval Treaty

Watson receives a letter from a friend back in his school days, Percy Phelps, stating that he has been living in a state of horrible suspense and begs Watson to bring Holmes to help him with his situation...

a nice decent read, i particularly enjoyed the solution here and the reveal of what exactly is going on. It's an interesting circumstance and i find it a bit comedic with how unfortunate it is for the culprit.

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The Final Problem

Holmes, looking weaker and paler, visits Watson. He shares the reason of his current condition, his battle of wits against James Moriarty and how they both intend to completely get rid of one anotber...

So here we are, the story where Doyle decided to kill off Sherlock Holmes. This story is a strong advocate for why "show don't tell" is important. A lot of the actual battle between Holmes and Moriarty is abstracted from the reader. So what we are essentally left with are pages of Holmes describing how smart, ruthless, and untouchable Moriarty is when we barely read any scenarios showing that. There are some moments where we do get to read Moriarty speak and do something his first conversation with Holmes is fun to read through and of course there's that small scheme he pulled at the end at the Reichenbach Falls but man he is such a hollow character here and it all feels so rushed and empty at the end. It's still somewhat engaging to read through though, Doyle still manages to write some tense and suspenful scenes despite how rushed it all feels.

in-progress...