Book info

• Title The Complete Sherlock Holmes
• Author Arthur Conan Doyle
• Year 1930
• Genre Mystery

Sherlock Holmes was the brain-child of British author Arthur Conan Doyle and is easily the most famous fictional detective of all time. The success and popularity of his stories helped launched the genre of detective fiction. With his (nearly) infallible logic, astute observation skills, gentlemanly conduct and endearing personality quirks, Holmes has been a favorite of readers around the world for over a century. This collection features all of the Sherlock Holmes stories written by Arthur Conan Doyle -- a total of 56 stories and 4 novels.

Thoughts

What a wonderful range and variety of stories are contained within the official world of Sherlock Holmes. I’ve read a bit of Holmes here and there before but now an awful lot of what happened on screen makes sense! Contained within this complete works are the four books and 50+ stories that make up a complete chronology of Holmes and Watson’s adventures in crime.

I was a bit surprised at how different some of the stories were. Almost all are told from Watson’s perspective, with a couple by Sherlock’s own hand. One, quite oddly, is in the third person. Some of the longer novels have two distinct parts, one involving the crime, and the second featuring how the perpetrators ended up in these situations. I was particularly frustrated in the second half of Valley of Fear, because, although it was a good story, I missed Sherlock.

Twists and turns and guessing games, along with the unique character that is Sherlock Holmes make this a fascinating read. I may have overdone it slightly, consuming the entire works all at once, but hey, now at least I know where the curious incident of the dog in the night time comes from.

Rating: 4 / 5