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| 3.5 stars out of 5 |
In The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes, the consulting detective's notoriety as the arch-despoiler of the schemes concocted by the criminal underworld at last gets the better of him.
Though Holmes and his faithful sidekick Dr Watson solve what will become some of their most bizarre and extraordinary cases - the disappearance of the race horse Silver Blaze, the horrific circumstances of the Greek Interpreter and the curious mystery of the Musgrave Ritual among them - a criminal mastermind is plotting the downfall of the great detective.
Half-devil, half-genius, Professor Moriarty leads Holmes and Watson on a grisly cat-and-mouse chase through London and across Europe, culminating in a frightful struggle which will turn the legendary Reichenbach Falls into a water double-grave.
Though Holmes and his faithful sidekick Dr Watson solve what will become some of their most bizarre and extraordinary cases - the disappearance of the race horse Silver Blaze, the horrific circumstances of the Greek Interpreter and the curious mystery of the Musgrave Ritual among them - a criminal mastermind is plotting the downfall of the great detective.
Half-devil, half-genius, Professor Moriarty leads Holmes and Watson on a grisly cat-and-mouse chase through London and across Europe, culminating in a frightful struggle which will turn the legendary Reichenbach Falls into a water double-grave.
***2019 The Summer of Sherlock***
It’s always a treat to read Conan Doyle and return to the world of Sherlock Holmes and Dr. John Watson. I suppose it’s no accident that a doctor should narrate the tales, seeing as Conan Doyle was himself a medical man. What is surprising to me is that a man with so many mystical interests would create so intensely logical and skeptical a character as Sherlock Holmes!
The last story in this little book is the final confrontation between Holmes and his nemesis, Dr. Moriarty. A man of as many interests as this author was not going to be happy pigeon-holed as a mystery writer, especially when all his audience seemed to want was more Sherlock stories. Talk about trapped in a corner! But I can definitely see why readers rebelled at this end to the great detective. The story is so short and really doesn’t do justice to the legend that Conan Doyle created. Perhaps it was a good thing that he didn’t document Sherlock’s demise too thoroughly and was able to engineer a return of the celebrated detective.
It is this truncated and unsatisfactory final story that drags my rating down to a 3.5 from my usual 4 star enjoyment of Holmes.
It’s always a treat to read Conan Doyle and return to the world of Sherlock Holmes and Dr. John Watson. I suppose it’s no accident that a doctor should narrate the tales, seeing as Conan Doyle was himself a medical man. What is surprising to me is that a man with so many mystical interests would create so intensely logical and skeptical a character as Sherlock Holmes!
The last story in this little book is the final confrontation between Holmes and his nemesis, Dr. Moriarty. A man of as many interests as this author was not going to be happy pigeon-holed as a mystery writer, especially when all his audience seemed to want was more Sherlock stories. Talk about trapped in a corner! But I can definitely see why readers rebelled at this end to the great detective. The story is so short and really doesn’t do justice to the legend that Conan Doyle created. Perhaps it was a good thing that he didn’t document Sherlock’s demise too thoroughly and was able to engineer a return of the celebrated detective.
It is this truncated and unsatisfactory final story that drags my rating down to a 3.5 from my usual 4 star enjoyment of Holmes.
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