Customer Rating:  
Summary: Somewhat Anticlimactic Sherlock Holmes Mystery.
Comment: This was my first introduction to Sherlock Holmes. I have wanted to start reading this series for some time and, finally, I was able to get around to it. As this was the first book in the series, I started with it.
Arthur Conan Doyle certainly created an enduring set of characters in the genius of crime-solving Sherlock Holmes and his assistant, Dr. James Watson. In this novel, they meet through a mutual friend as two people both looking for roommates. Not but a few days after, Holmes reveals to Watson that he is a private detective and the two embark together on their first (of what will be many) cases.
Quite frankly, I don't think this novel lived up to the accolades that Doyle has garnered for his Sherlock Holmes series. While the novel was certainly not predictable, it was quite dragging and not very cohesive. After Holmes declares that he knows who committed the murder, we enter into a VERY long backstory of how the killer came to know the victims (they indirectly killed the woman he intended to marry and, subseuquently, he has spent many years planning their deaths). The last few chapters, where Holmes puts together how he deduced the identity of the killer are so implausible as to be almost pedestrian.
I have subsequently read several of the later Holmes stories and I must say that they are generally better than this novel was. I would urge the Homes novice to start with the "Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes." The stories are quicker and generally more exciting.
Customer Rating:
Summary: A study in scarlet
Comment: A study in scarlet is the first Sherlock Holmes adventure with Dr. Watson, the classic crime-solving partnership. I read it in Spanish (my first language) when I was around 9 years old and I love it at that time.
I just finish reading it, 21 years later and in english, and I still think is a great book.....short enough to read it in a week, probably less, nevertheless, complex enough to catch your attention.
I haven't finish The Sign of 4 yet, but so far it seems to be as good as a Study in Scarlet!
Customer Rating:
Summary: Super Reader
Comment: A lovely origin story. Dr. Watson, returned from a war and in need of lodgings is led to Baker Street. In this fine location resides one Sherlock Holmes.
They are soon on the trail of a mystery that involves a corpse, and a word scrawled in blood on a wool. Then there are dodgy mormons and a bit of wild west action.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Dr Watson, I'd like you to meet Mr Sherlock Holmes!
Comment: As Agatha Christie's "The Mysterious Affair at Styles" introduced a grateful reading public to Hercule Poirot, perhaps the second best known fictional detective of all time, Conan Doyle's "A Study in Scarlet" marked the debut appearance of the acknowledged master of detection, the one and only Sherlock Holmes!
John Watson, a medical doctor recently retired from the British military to recover his health and recuperate from wounds received in Afghanistan, is looking to stretch his limited budget by finding another gentleman with whom he can share accommodation. When a mutual friend introduced him to Sherlock Holmes, one might slyly suggest that the game was afoot and the rest, as they also say, became history. Already characteristically melancholy and moody, a jaded Holmes, who labeled himself the world's only consulting detective, is invited by Scotland Yard's Lestrade and Gregson to assist in the investigation of a baffling pair of murders.
With "A Study in Scarlet", Doyle is clearly new to the craft of writing mysteries and the great detective's debut outing suffers from characteristic first novel and new character jitters. The style itself is markedly different from everything that follows in the Holmes canon with the story being told from a third-party perspective. The background to the mystery is revealed through the mechanism of a flashback to the western USA at the time of the Mormon migration to Utah. Feedback from the reading public must have been immediate and - we'll have to hand it to Doyle - he must have been a quick learner. Watson was thereafter appointed official narrator and diarist to the master and Doyle never looked back.
I leave it to others smarter than I to judge whether or not Doyle's historical characterization of the Mormons is justified or accurate! Suffice it to say, that the mystery is entertaining but the details are, quite frankly, entirely unimportant beside the overwhelming fact that this was the first time the world heard the name "Sherlock Holmes". It took Doyle only a few pages for example to treat us to an aphorism that we would come to hear over and over again, "It is a capital mistake to theorize before you have all the evidence."
This novel is a cornerstone in the annals of crime fiction, an extremely important piece of the history of English literature and a darned good read! Enjoy it!
Paul Weiss
Customer Rating:
Summary: Another Mormon reader chimes in . . .
Comment:
I recently picked up THE ADVENTURES OF SHERLOCK HOLMES, which has been sitting on my shelf for over a year and I'm glad I did. The first book in the compendium of his early works is A STUDY IN SCARLET, to which I restrict my comments.
The story is broken into two parts. The first chronicles the murder and pursuit by Holmes, the second provides the background and motive for the murder and ultimately the resolution of the case.
A STUDY IN SCARLET is the first of many Sherlock Holmes novels and is a good place to start if you, like me, are aware of Holmes' preeminent status as the literary world's best detective, but have not yet taken the opportunity to read his adventures.
The first book introduces Holmes and Watson and chronicles how they came to be companions. It also gives an insight into the pains Holmes has taken to develop his sleuthing skills. This introduction is intriguing and will pull you along until the crime is discovered, at which point you'll be hooked.
The development of the rest of the first part is equally intriguing as the mystery becomes clearer and clearer to Holmes, though no more clear to the reader. One is truly impressed by all that is "elementary"* to Mr. Holmes, but imperceptible to we mere mortals.
The second part of the book takes place primarily in Utah at the time the valley was settled by the Mormons. Brigham Young and the burgeoning Mormon society are menacing and effectively occupy the role of the antagonist for the second part.
For those unfamiliar with the Latter-Day Saints, please note that this account is purely a work a historical fiction and is wholly inaccurate in its depiction of Brigham Young, Salt Lake City, and Mormons at large. For that, I deduct a star for the hazard it may present to those unaware of the true character of the Mormon faith. Personally, I found the second part more distasteful than will the average reader because I am a proud Latter-day Saint.
Still, with these flaws, the book is a wonderful introduction to a literary character with whom all should be familiar. I recommend the book.
* I must say that I was disappointed to find Holmes' catch-phrase "it's elementary my dear Watson" missing from this volume (though I don't deduct any stars for its absence). Surely, it appears in later works. I was waiting for it, but, alas, it didn't appear.
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