Sherlock Holmes: A Study in Scarlet

by Arthur Conan Doyle

The greatest detective of them all is back...'There's the scarlet thread of murder running through the colourless skein of life, and our duty is to unravel it, and isolate it, and expose every inch of it'. Arriving in the wilderness of London Dr John Watson finds himself lodging at 221b Baker Street with one Sherlock Holmes. A corpse has been discovered and scrawled in blood across the walls is the word RACHE -- revenge. Watson, is baffled by the case but for Holmes the game is afoot!

• ISBN10: 0755334485
• ISBN13: 9780755334483
• Publish Date: 8 February 2007
• Publish Status: Out of Print
• Out of Print: 21 January 2011
• Publish Country: GB
• Publisher: Headline Publishing Group
• Imprint: Headline Review
• Format: Paperback (A-Format (178x111 mm))
• Pages: 176
• Language: English

Reviews

[sa090]

I was actually struggling through Neil Gaiman's Neverwhere before I put it on an indefinite hold and started this one instead, it was going really well before the second part of it started but more of that later 🙃

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First of all I really really enjoyed seeing how exactly did Sherlock Holmes and John Watson meet, the movies were great but that piece of info was never available and I personally haven't watched nor read up on the latest series concerning the duo so I'm ignorant of any aspects of it regarding their meeting and how it goes in accordance to what actually happened in Arthur Conan Doyle's story. Now the best thing about it that Holmes is just as eccentric and weird as when he was portrayed by Robert Downey Jr. so tuning in to see how he would act in this novel was both easy and exciting.

I feel like I learned a lot more about him here concerning his thinking process, habits and interests that it's a win no matter how I look at it. Learning more about Watson as well was another interesting-ish event but since I feel like this book was more focused on Sherlock as it should be, I didn't learn too much but no matter.

Now the murder itself and how it was solved was pretty interesting, I really enjoyed seeing his genius at work and how meticulous about everything, as you'd expect a great detective to be. The motive behind it was insanely common though so there isn't much to wonder about there but nonetheless the execution of the crime with how carefully planned it was deserves a little bit of recognition.

Now my main issue here is the sudden shift in time lines, I didn't need it, I didn't enjoy and tbh I couldn't care less about it or what happened in it. Of course it was there to provide me with a little bit of background as to why all of this happened and where the players in this crime come from or more accurately what they lived through but here's the thing; it didn't have to be like this. Arthur Conan Doyle literally gave our criminal the chance to talk about their motives and why this crime happened so would it have been such a terrible idea to add a few more lines to that dialogue to help with the missing pieces of the narrative? I don't think so, at least half of what was told in that time jump was honestly not needed for the plot of this story, at least it wasn't for me.


Final rating: 3/5

This is a fairly short mystery, about 140 pages or so - split into two parts. The first part details how Sherlock and John first meet and how Sherlock investigates the crime and comes to the conclusion of the guilty party. The second part, follows the criminal and victims before wrapping up with the murderer's confession. Although the main bulk of the novel follows Holmes and Watson, we do meet Gregson and Lestrade - but more or less they operate as secondary minor characters.

For a character that has been as fleshed out and adapted as many times as Sherlock Holmes has - he's surprisingly flat. There isn't a whole lot of character development but then it is pretty short. The book mainly focuses on the mystery itself and the conclusions Sherlock draws. There is an easy camaraderie between Watson and Holmes. And Holmes isn't (or at least isn't in this novel) as high strung as he is later portrayed. He's also not as conceited, high handed or unaffected by people. He is surprisingly bitter about the lack of attention and acclaim he is given as a consulting detective. If anything Watson is more malicious than he ever appears in any other version I've seen (he really wants to get one over Sherlock at one point) and more curious about Holmes and his methods. And there was an appearance by the Baker Street Irregulars which I found enjoyable - I've just finished rereading the Baker Street Boys series by Anthony Read. Although they didn't seem to be called that and I'm not sure if that name even comes from the original material.

It was interesting reading the original material. I found the mystery to be fast paced and fascinating. I liked how Sherlock worked to solve it. Overall an enjoyable read.