Sherlock Holmes

Book Review: The Hound of the Baskervilles

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The Hound of the Baskervilles
Sherlock Holmes #5
by Arthur Conan Doyle

My rating: 4 / 5
Genre: Classic mystery

I saved what is possibly the most well-known Holmes book for last in my first journey through the series. It’s the one title I’ve known since I was younger and imagined a scary hound in a foggy place (I’m beginning to suspect I actually read this many years ago, or maybe watched an adaptation). Though I’ve read conflicting arguments that this is the best or the worst in the series, I was looking forward to it, and it didn’t disappoint.

The legend laid forth at the beginning of the book sets the stage for the dark, dreary moor that becomes the setting for the second half of the book. The remoteness of the locale easily adds to the dread of what’s to come. Though I knew Holmes would be correct in his dismissal of any supernatural elements, and a few aspects of the plot along the way were less surprising, there were still some unexpected twists that kept me engaged until the very end. And I was struck once again by more compassion from Holmes than I feel like more modern adaptations have attributed to him. So though the pacing was a bit slow in places, overall, I enjoyed this intriguing, atmospheric read.

Here at the end of my first Holmes journey, while I did enjoy some of the books, it was fairly hit-or-miss for me, even within some of the collections. I’m really glad I stuck with it and finished them all, but I don’t believe I’ll re-read most of them in the future (probably some though). And really, while I know many people espouse books over movies/television, I don’t know if I believe that Sherlock Holmes would be a household name if it weren’t for the many adaptations that the stories inspired. At one point during this journey, I really struggled to understand why these books inspired all those adaptations, though I don’t anymore. If you’ve never read any Holmes, or haven’t read much, and you’re wondering if you should dive in now, I’d say it’s worth giving them a try.

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Book Review: His Last Bow

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His Last Bow
Sherlock Holmes #8
by Arthur Conan Doyle
Read by David Clarke

My rating: 3 / 5
Genre: Classic mystery

This collection of short stories did not impress me overall. Based on synopses I’d read, I expected there to be more in the way of Holmes helping the British government during wartime than the one story, but there was only one. Most of the stories in the collection were either not particularly interesting to me or just felt too similar to many of the other Holmes stories I’ve read. However, the last two in the collection—”The Adventures of the Devil’s Foot” and the one for which the collection is named—were much more engaging and enjoyable. For those alone, I would probably have given the book 5 stars. The final one in particular, though I struggled to follow it early on, was quite different, being told in 3rd person and not really being a mystery. 

All I have left to read in the entire series now is The Hound of the Baskerville, and I will feel quite accomplished having finally read this well-known series in its entirety. Whether I will re-visit any of the Holmes stories in the future…I probably will, but not all of them.

Regarding the audiobook, I started listening to the narration of Frederick Davidson, but it reminded me too much of Cary Elwes’s impression of Winston Churchill in Robin Hood Men in Tights, and I couldn’t take it seriously. So I switched to David Clarke, and it was much better.

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Book Review: The Case-Book of Sherlock Holmes

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The Case-Book of Sherlock Holmes
Sherlock Holmes #9
by Arthur Conan Doyle
Read by Ben Werling, Kevin Theis, and Sara Nichols

My rating: 4.5 / 5
Genre: Classic mystery

I think this has been my favorite collection of short stories in this series so far. I almost didn’t read it, thinking to skip this and His Last Bow and just reading The Hound of the Baskervilles to finish up my foray into Sherlock Holmes. But then I found an audiobook version that intrigued me, and I really can’t say that it wasn’t the reason it was my favorite. But even outside of liking the narration (more on that later), I was more engaged throughout this book. Most of the mysteries were intriguing (except for the one where the woman literally just tells everything to Holmes; there’s nothing for him to solve at all—I did like the very end of that one though), and I particularly liked the villain Baron Gruner. I’m surprised we don’t hear of him at least as much as Moriarty; he’s in only one less story than Moriarty (who is only in two), but he has more “screen time” and is also clearly quite clever. I am not sure how I would have felt about the stories narrated by Holmes instead of Watson if I weren’t listening to them read by Kevin Theis, but overall, I enjoyed my time listening to this book.

Regarding the audiobook, this version was narrated by Ben Werling, who also voiced Watson, and Kevin Theis, who voiced Sherlock. They both also performed various other male characters, and Sara Nichols voiced any female or child roles. I wasn’t impressed by Ben Werling who was a little odd with some of his dialog tags. He commonly put full emphasis on both words in the tag, “said Holmes.” with more of an exclamation point than a period after them. It was strange. But Kevin Theis, who I have gotten used to as the voice of Bertie Wooster, was great as Holmes. I would go back and listen to every single Holmes book, even the ones I didn’t care for much, if he was narrating them. Sara Nichols I don’t really have anything to say about, but I didn’t have any issues with her.

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Book Review: The Return of Sherlock Holmes

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The Return of Sherlock Holmes
Sherlock Holmes #6
by Arthur Conan Doyle

My rating: 3 / 5
Genre: Classic mystery

I wasn’t all that impressed by this collection of stories. Some of it just felt like it had been done before, others seemed like a bit of a stretch to get to the end. At least one was almost too obvious. I’m not a fan of the cavalier response to the murder of a man in one of the stories, criminal though he may have been. I didn’t even realize why Mary Watson was suddenly gone in this book until I read some other reviews (I thought maybe Holmes’s “death” and return must simply have taken place before Watson was married, since I’ve never really paid much attention to the dates), because it was so vaguely alluded to. I would really have hoped for at least a little more consideration for the loss of the woman whose relationship with Watson came about in a previous book. But I guess the weak ending to the relationship mirrors the weakly shown beginning to it. I’ve come this far, so I’m determined to finish out the entirety of these stories, but I hope to see a return to some of the more interesting and inventive stories of the earlier books.

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Book Review: The Valley of Fear

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The Valley of Fear
Sherlock Holmes #7
by Arthur Conan Doyle

My rating: 4 / 5
Genre: Classic mystery

Like A Study in Scarlet, this novella is in two parts—the mystery being solved by Holmes and the backstory of the principle character in the mystery. Each part has a bit of a twist near the end. The mystery section is interesting enough, though doesn’t stand out much from the others I’ve read so far. I was spoiled on the twist (people seem to care a lot less about spoiler tags and warnings when leaving a low rating), so it’s difficult to say how I would have felt about it. It didn’t seem particularly inspired, that’s all I can really say. The backstory portion I found interesting and unnecessarily long in turns. It’s very difficult for me to get into the head of someone who is so brutal and uncaring. The twist, though, was probably one of the most surprising twists I’ve read. I did not see it coming and mentally applauded Doyle for the misdirect. I raised the story at least half a star, maybe a full star, just because of that twist.

I have to say that screen writers over the years have really done a number with Moriarty. I am sure I’m not the only person who has read these stories after seeing and hearing about Holmes over the years and imagining Moriarty as a dastardly foil for the great detective, only to realize that book Moriarty is nothing compared to his on-screen counterparts. This book had even less Moriarty than the short story in which he was introduced (“The Final Problem” in The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes), and now that I’ve read both stories with the infamous villain in them, I really can’t believe how big of a deal the character became. We really only know he’s brilliant because we’re told he is. There’s no proof given; Sherlock says he’s a criminal mastermind, so that’s all we need to make up stories about his treachery. Anyway, all of that aside, this was a more memorable Holmes story for me, so that’s something (though it has nothing to do with Moriarty).

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Book Review: The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes

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The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes
Sherlock Holmes #4
by Arthur Conan Doyle

My rating: 3.5 / 5
Genre: Classic mystery

Part of me thinks that I need to make sure to start spreading out the shorter stories within one collection. But another part of me wonders if that would help. One of the things that’s starting to wear on me with these stories is the way most cases are presented the same way—a big info dump to explain the case to Holmes and/or Watson. Sometimes, the person telling the story will share dialog from someone else, and I often find myself asking how the person could be so precise in telling the story. And then there was at least one of these stories where the person telling the story related dialog from someone else who was also relating an event that included further dialog. There came a point where my mind was completely muddled and I couldn’t remember who was talking. When you’re 3+ deep in quotation marks (“‘”You astound me!”‘”) to get the story across, it’s getting a little ridiculous.

Some of the cases were still intriguing, while others were a bit more obvious. I think I’m starting to get the hang of Doyle’s pattern with these cases, though that doesn’t mean I can figure them all out before the end. I think what surprised me the most was the introduction of Professor Moriarty, whom everyone knows as Holmes’s arch-rival. But that story was more about Holmes trying to escape the man, with his brilliance and nefariousness only told to us, not really shown in any way. He’s dangerous and worthy of Holmes’s attention only because Holmes says so. I have no idea if the man will appear in any other stories, but to be honest, this one was kind of a dud for me. I did question partway through this book whether it was worth continuing. I think I will, as I don’t think I can really judge the entire character without reading everything Doyle wrote about him. But when I come to the next short story collection, I’ll probably take my time with it.

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Book Review: The Sign of Four

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The Sign of Four
Sherlock Holmes #2
 by Arthur Conan Doyle

My rating: 3 / 5
Genre: Classic mystery

This is going to be the shortest review I’ve ever written. I’m slowly making my way through the Sherlock Holmes stories for the first time. This was not my favorite. The mystery wasn’t nearly as interesting as others have been; in fact, it was a bit bizarre. It’s the book where Watson meets the woman he ends up marrying, but that relationship didn’t grow in any particularly interesting way either. Overall, the story just felt slow and not very memorable.

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Book Review: A Study in Scarlet

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A Study in Scarlet
Sherlock Holmes #1
 by Arthur Conan Doyle

My rating: 4 / 5
Genre: Classic mystery

I almost feel like I should write two separate reviews for this book, considering how vastly different parts 1 and 2 are from each other. I can’t say that Doyle’s decision to leave England and go back in time several years to show the victim and murderer’s backstory in America up close is one that makes a lot of sense to me, but I didn’t hate it like some seem to. If this had been the first Holmes story I’d read, though, I could see where it might make me hesitate to pick up another. In the end, I think that, though the Utah diversion was interesting in its own right, it felt completely unnecessary to the mystery story.

Now, outside of the trip to Utah, it was great to see the original meeting between two characters who have been duplicated and imitated so many times since. Watson learning what Holmes does and seeing the first glimpses at his methods and madness is fun to read. I liked the introduction of Watson himself too. Overall, I’ve been enjoying my first time reading these stories.

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Book Review: The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes

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The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes
Sherlock Holmes #3
 by Arthur Conan Doyle

My rating: 4 / 5
Genre: Classic mystery

This is the first Sherlock Holmes I’ve ever read, though like many, I’ve seen various adaptations. I started with this book of short stories mostly because it was the one I owned. I’ve never been a huge fan of short stories, though, and while I wish now that I’d started by checking A Study in Scarlet out from the library, I’m still glad I’ve started reading Holmes in any form. The issue with reading this book of shorter mysteries, though, is that a lot of the clients start to blend together, as many of them talk and act similarly when they bring Holmes their case. I did spread the stories out, reading 3 at a time, then reading other books before coming back for more, and I think that helped some.

My view of Holmes and Watson, and even some of the other characters, started with an understanding based on some of the adaptations I’ve seen, and while Holmes was indeed standoffish and generally assumed he was the smartest one in the room, I didn’t think he was quite as cold as I’ve seen him portrayed. A few of the cases were really interesting, while there were a couple that I thought had a much less intriguing solution. The introduction of Irene Adler wasn’t at all what I expected, but I wonder if she’ll be back in a future story. Overall, I enjoyed reading these vignettes, and have a feeling I’ll appreciate even more the longer stories when I get to them.

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Notebook Collection, part 6

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I’ve been putting off posting about my most recent notebook acquisitions for a few months now. I don’t know why. But I realized today that, since my husband and I are going on an anniversary trip in a few days, I’m likely to have more soon. So it’s time to get caught up.

If anyone is interested in the previous posts as my smattering of notebooks became a collection and has grown:
Post #1
Post #2
Post #3
Post #4
Post #5

notebook 1

It’s not very often that I add a notebook to my collection that is full-sized. Most of those that catch my eye are about half the size of the standard 8 1/2 x 11. This one is not only full-size, but has hard front and back covers, with an indented, condensed image of a map of the world. I still can’t explain my apparent fascination with maps on my notebooks, but I really like the way it looks.

notebook 2

Everyone knows about the flippy sequins that are all over everything these days, right? I used to think it was silly, but at some point, I realized how it might be soothing to flip them back and forth while sitting and reading or something. But I didn’t want it on just anything. My husband got me a large blanket of this type, which was perfect, because we keep our house pretty cool in the winter, and I am usually found under a blanket. More recently, I spotted a notebook at Meijer with the exact same color pattern of flippy sequins…it seemed like destiny. Granted, it might not be the easiest notebook to actually write in, but given the rate I’m going through these notebooks, that won’t be an issue for a long time.

notebook 3

Don’t let the size of the picture fool you–this notebook is quite small. Still not the smallest I have though. My husband insisted on me getting this one at WinterJam in February. Building 429 is amongst my favorite bands, and “Fear No More” is my favorite of their recent songs. (though the honor of my favorite song of theirs overall still belongs to “Where I Belong”). Concert t-shirts are good too, but this kind of souvenir definitely appeals to me a lot.

notebook 4In my previous notebook post, I shared my discovery of novel journals, an in particular, the Sherlock Holmes one I had picked up. While these notebooks are seriously amazing to me, I have read very few of the classics that they are based on. I had seen somewhere that there was one for Anne of Green Gables, which not only have I read, I loved! However, I was finding these sporadically in different locations, and was at the mercy of which books they had. The price online wasn’t preferable at the time either. Then I happened to see this at Meijer, of all places, and so now it’s mine. I haven’t been able to bring myself to take the plastic wrapper off of it yet though. Many of the notebooks I buy are wrapped in plastic, but always have a flap with adhesive to open the package easily. I tend to take the book out to look at it or take a picture, then put it back until I’m ready to start using it. Keeps it clean while it sits and waits. But this one doesn’t have a flap, it’s just completely sealed. So once it’s out, it’s out for good.

This is half of the most recent additions to my collection. I prefer to share shorter posts since the first few that were so long (since I share the story behind every notebook). So some time next week, I’ll post about 4 more. And then we’ll see if after our vacation, I have another post to make. (I’m just as likely to return with a stack of books as notebooks, now that I’ve found my way back to reading so much.)

Do you have any favorite notebooks? Feel free to share!