Review: His Last Bow

His Last Bow by Arthur Conan Doyle
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I'm going to miss these Holmes stories. I just realized I finished them all. This final collection was quite good. My favorite was probably "The Adventure of the Devil's Foot". The final one was excellent as well.

After a while (especially when binging all of this books) you start to get the hang of Holmes's methods. When Holmes was deathly ill, I knew he was faking it for some reason, and so I kept trying to figure out why, although the ending still tricked me. .

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Review: The Valley of Fear

The Valley of Fear by Arthur Conan Doyle
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I enjoyed this thoroughly. The second half seemed odd. At first I thought it was just to pad the book and make it longer, which it might have been. But it also allowed Doyle to write about something other than Holmes, and I thought it worked very well. So much so that I might try to find some of his other, non-Sherlock, work.



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Review: The Return of Sherlock Holmes

The Return of Sherlock Holmes by Arthur Conan Doyle
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

In a way these stories are getting somewhat predictable, in that there is a set formula of having a mystery (often with the police coming to the wrong conclusion), trailing the clues, finding the culprit.

On the other hand this makes them a bit more interactive, since I can try my hand and trying to figure out who the culprit is before the great reveal. For the most part I can do so rather early on, although I'm often wrong about the whole story (which Holmes seems to deduce but we, the reader, wouldn't have been able to).

Having watched the BBC Sherlock series makes it more fun, since many episodes were taken from actual stories, but the killer turns out to be someone different. It makes me appreciate how well the series was done, since those familiar with Sherlock probably thought they knew what to expect, but then everything turned out differently.

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Review: The Hound of the Baskervilles

The Hound of the Baskervilles by Arthur Conan Doyle
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I actually enjoyed this quite a bit. The format seemed somewhat different, having Watson as the main protagonist, with his letters to Holmes providing the bulk of the information. It seems that, by using this mechanism, Doyle places us (almost) on equal footing as Holmes in terms of the information we have, so that we are just as able to deduce who the culprit might be as Holmes is.

The description of the moors is intriguing, especially after having read a biography of the Brontës, where they seem so romantic.

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Review: The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes

The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes by Arthur Conan Doyle
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I can't say I enjoyed this as much as the last collection of stories. They were pretty hit or miss. For example, the episode where we meet Mycroft (The Greek Interpreter) didn't even involve any deduction on Sherlock's part. Also, his "death" was a bit sudden (Moriarty is only introduced in the final short story as the best best best best criminal mastermind ever), so I see why people were upset.

The introduction by Stephen Fry (in my version) of how he got involved with the Sherlock Holmes society as a youth was probably one of the most interesting parts.

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Review: The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes

The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes by Arthur Conan Doyle
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I enjoyed this much more than "The Sign of Four". I like this short story format, since it doesn't drag on and seems more like many short episodes rather than one long movie. Some of the stories are better than others, obviously, but they're all quite easy and fun to follow.

I think the last two stories were probably my favorite.

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Review: The Sign of Four

The Sign of Four by Arthur Conan Doyle
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I can't say I enjoyed this as much as A Study in Scarlet. Half of the story was told by the villain at the end, rather than experienced throughout the book, which seemed a bit contrived. I might take a break before tackling the next book.


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Review: A Study in Scarlet

A Study in Scarlet by Arthur Conan Doyle
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

What a delight! I really didn't think I would enjoy this, since I imagined I would know every twist and turn by now, and that old Victorian tricks wouldn't stand the test of time. Turns out I was wrong on both counts. Looking forward to The Sign of Four.


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