The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes - Arthur Conan Doyle

I was familiar with the Sherlock Holmes stories from the 1980 television series which was sometimes shown at school, but save for The Hound of the Baskervilles, I do not recall having ever read any. This recent edition, misleadingly titled The Adventures, also contains The Memoirs collection, making up 23 stories in total. Due to their short, snappy, eminently readable style, I was able to get through two or three a night, making them suitable bedtime material. I sometimes flounder when reading longer detective/mystery novels as I tend to lose the weave of the narrative, thus the shorter length presented here is ideal. Little needs to be written on the premise of the tales, for they are among the most well-known and adapted in the literary canon. The mysteries themselves work best when they are of a small scale domestic affair, and it's refreshing that Conan Doyle deals with people from all different social spheres, as opposed to being limited to the well-to-do country bourgeois, as later manifestations of the crime genre are wont to do.     

The stories can be read in any order, for chronologically they jump around a lot and make references to other cases, some of which are not included in this particular volume. The only rotten egg in the basket is 'The Final Problem', the notoriously contrived story where Conan Doyle tries to kill Holmes off through a hastily constructed arch nemesis, the criminal mastermind Moriarty, a two-dimensional character who feels exactly like the afterthought he is. This edition is peppered with numerous nitpicking notes pointing out inconsistencies, plot holes, factual errors, and lengthy explanations on how some of Holmes' deductive reasoning is faulty. These were quite entertaining to read at times, if only to wince at the editor's smug hectoring. These books were intended as light, populist entertainment when they were written, so I always find it a little odd when they come under intense academic scrutiny. Do Conan Doyle's blips detract from the reader's entertainment? Not one bit!   

Rating: 4/5