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Title: The Return of Sherlock Holmes
Series: Sherlock Holmes #5
Author: Arthur Doyle
Rating: 3 of 5 Stars
Genre: Mystery
Pages: 420
Words: 114K
| Synopsis: |
Table of Contents
“The Adventure of the Empty House”
“The Adventure of the Norwood Builder”
“The Adventure of the Dancing Men”
“The Adventure of the Solitary Cyclist”
“The Adventure of the Priory School”
“The Adventure of Black Peter”
“The Adventure of Charles Augustus Milverton”
“The Adventure of the Six Napoleons”
“The Adventure of the Three Students”
“The Adventure of the Golden Pince-Nez”
“The Adventure of the Missing Three-Quarter”
“The Adventure of the Abbey Grange”
“The Adventure of the Second Stain”
| My Thoughts: |
While Sherlock returns from what should have been certain death, in this collection, it wasn’t the fantastic return it should have been. Doyle seems to have run out of vim and vigor and most of these stories felt very plodd’y. To the point he abandons all continuity and has Sherlock and Watson once again living at 221B Baker Street. Mrs Watson seems to have been disappeared, to the point where I had to wonder why Doyle had ever introduced her in the first place.
All of these were new to me except for the Dancing Men and even that I had forgotten pretty much everything except that the dancing men were a code. With all new (to me) stories, I have to admit I was hoping for a bit more punch and some rock-em-sock-em robot action. What I got was workmanlike stories written to pay the bills.
Personally, I don’t see why “I” should be punished by Doyle’s bad attitude; “I” didn’t ask him to write more Sherlock. He did that all on his own because going out and earning a living with his hands was too much for the namby-pamby wuss. He should have become a land surveyor, that’d put hair on his chest, pennies in his pocket and mush on the table. But nope, instead he churns out spiritless stories and the hoi poloi of his time are too stupid to even reject them. So here I am, left with a legacy of spiritless stupidity. My goodness, the stuff I put up with just to write reviews. And I’m not even getting paid. And if I was getting paid, I’d spit in the eye of the company paying me because only book hookers write reviews for money.
Ok, enough of that.
Despite my complaining, there was nothing bad about this collection. It just didn’t feel inspired and for a 400+ page book, you a little inspiration to keep that plodd’y feeling away.
- A Study in Scarlet (Book 1)
- The Sign of Four (Book 2)
- The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes (Book 3)
- The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes (Book 4)
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