Customer Reviews

A Study in Scarlet: The First Sherlock Holmes Mystery

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This was the first Sherlock Holmes story I had ever read. I always thought the Sherlock Holmes stories were about a generic genius detective and his kind-of-bumbling sidekick. Was I ever wrong! The characters have so many more dimensions than their pop culture portrayals would lead one to believe.

Yes, Holmes is a genius... when it comes to solving crimes. He's a knowledgeable chemist and forensics specialist, he's a skilled actor and boxer, and his powers in deductive reasoning are superb. He also isn't aware that the Earth revolves around the sun. When he finds out, he simply says that he'll forget it later. (It serves no purpose for detective work.) Did I mention that he suffers from what we would today call bipolar disorder? Oh yeah -- he's also developing a cocaine habit.

And Watson? He's the overweight, bumbling goof that follows Holmes around and has to have simple things explained to him, right? Not so. Watson is a physician, and a wounded veteran of an early British Army campaign in Afghanistan. He came home to London, suffering from what we would today call PTSD, and moved in with an eccentric friend of a friend who needed a roommate who turned out to be Holmes. He's a well-educated person and the perfect Victorian gentleman -- a fitting character to partner with and complement the odd-but-brilliant Holmes.

As for the story, I don't want to give away too much. (It is a mystery, after all.) But I will say the surprising plot turns kept me reading, without seeming like the twists for the sake of twists many mysteries and thrillers plague their readers with. (You should take note, James Patterson.) A story is framed within the main story -- a Western tale of revenge within a Victorian murder mystery, believe it or not. And the killer is just as deep and 3-dimensional as the detectives. But I've said too much. Go read it for yourself!

This was a great book; I highly recommend it to anyone who likes detective stories or mysteries. It's pretty short, so you can read it quickly. I've read the other Sherlock Holmes books, but I really like this one because it introduces the characters and you get to know their personalities. The story is an incredible one with such a strange background I could never have thought it up. Definitely worth a read!

My first Sherlock Holmes book. It was great! I look forward to discussing it at book club!