Customer Reviews

The Crimes of Dr. Watson (Interactive Mysteries)

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

Something about interactive books always gets me! This book is no exception. The clever narrative writing is complemented with "evidence" collected by "Dr. Watson." Read the book, check out the clues and try to solve the case! If, like me, you're too lazy to apply a little brain power to figure it out, there's a handy solution explanation tucked away in the back. Great read!

The production values of the book try to reflect the time of Dr Watson and Holmes, from the slightly yellowed pages to the Victorian endpapers that look like the wallpaper pattern common at the time.

The mini-story contained within, 'The Final Problem', was a treat. The clues held within were reproduced well and felt that you were holding the actual pieces of evidence.

It's a fascinating book to pass the time by and to try to solve the mystery. I'd recommend it.

I thought this book was well designed and nicely tactile with all its envelope-enclosed clues (a la "Griffin and Sabine") The illustrations by Hansen are especially good but the mystery itself is larded with way too many red-herrings and non-telling details and other distracting elements. Conan-Doyle's mysteries always were set up with the sparest and most minimal bits of information, whereas this little book just keeps throwing things at you "and this, and this and this" style. Also, I wish it read more Victorian. Decent little book. B-

I purchased The Crimes of Dr. Watson: An Interactive Sherlock Holmes Mystery for my husband who absolutely LOVED it. It was unexpected and he has a great time solving the mystery. His only wish was that he book was longer. Otherwise, he was extremely satisfied. True Sherlock Holmes fans will get a kick out of this book. I think it would be a GREAt stocking stuffer.

If you are a hard-core Holmesian, with the maiden name of Watson's wife and the story in which she first appeared at the tip of your brain... well, you ARE likely to enjoy this book, but others should be reassured that one needs no encyclopaedic knowledge of the minutiae in order to do so.

The mystery itself is challenging, although owing to the nature of the presentation here, a portion of it does indeed come down to defining what it is you're trying to solve. The best approach, and indeed the one practiced by Holmes himself, is to use the mounting tally of data points to simplify, rather than complicate, your working theory. There is an event, and behind that event there's a "who," and that person has a "why" behind their actions. Unfortunately, like poor Watson himself, writing feverishly so that his far-away acquaintance Colonel Harry can get all the information in time, the reader will likely find it difficult to know how, or even if, a particular clue has relevance to these central questions, and because the author gets a little loose and slippery with the clues, it becomes all too easy to spin a yarn that is quite dense and intriguing, but irrelevant. Some commenters here appear to have suffered this fate, and I have to admit, I also came up with some wonderful ideas about what turned out in the end to be utterly incidental details.

As a reading experience, this book does something that's pleasing in a visceral way, all the moreso because of its analog nature. Turning a bit of paper over in one's hands is something no iGadget can replicate (yet). As a mystery, it's not without some flaws, but is reasonably solid. The answer, once revealed, is perfectly fair; I did not feel cheated. However, I did go much farther in my theorizing than was required. The more one tries to 'become' Holmes and construct "gossamer strands" between the clues, the more one risks inventing some manner of story that is more complex - and even more satisfying - than the one actually revealed by the evidence. That's not a bad thing, though; this book does such a good job of putting the reader into Holmes' world that it inspires one to something beyond what its short length can sustain. This is a great book for a single rainy afternoon. I can't say what sort of re-reading value it will have, but I know some clever children who, when they graduate from Harry Potter to Conan Doyle, will love the chance to dive in and apply some deduction. Being kids, they'll probably solve the thing more efficiently, too.

One detail does bother me, and fair warning as this constitutes a SPOILER and you'll miss nothing if you STOP READING NOW... suffice to say, when you have a character with an improbable name it's fairly obvious that name is an anagram. Fair enough, but to give that character a title, and then require for the anagram to work that an abbreviation be used for the title, then an initial, and then the middle name, well, it's all too neat and yet terribly sloppy at the same time. Mr. Swierczynski overreaches in a couple of critical little areas like this, and one gets the impression he just couldn't help himself. Fortunately these are not really game-changers, and upon reading you'll probably be in a forgiving mood, as I was. Only later upon reflection does the experience sour, and just a little.

This book is so cool! Hubby bought it for me as bd gift and I love it! We are hard core Holmes/Watson fans...its not only to read but its hands on and really is interactive.

To other big Holmes fans who may be glancing here hoping for a little unspoilered hint, I say this: the solution is less complicated and less interesting than you probably think. The ratio of red herrings to real data here is appalling. I was completely overthinking this, apparently giving the author far too much credit by looking for something subtle, and led far far astray by inconsistencies in dates and references to canon.

It is a very pretty book.

While it was fun to play a Holmesian role, the solution proved a disappointment. An interesting and engaging build-up to a big let down, at least for this Sherlock wanna-be.

Fun, but a little more adult oriented than I expected. The mystery was a little unclear. I didn't know exactly what was supposed to be solved. The book was put together well,and the clues were cool.

High expectations ... that was after I read the CSI interactive story from the same author.

Positive side:
- high quality book with nice props in it.

Negative side:
- long narration from Watson
- the different elements of proofs (props) are barely used; too bad, so much effort put into it for nothing.
- the actual solution makes me vomit; all this blabla just for that.

Bottom line, not worth spending the money on form over content.

PS. The one to solve the case is Col. H Kelsh Resmo ... I let you find the anagram ...