A Study in Scarlet
Crime, Mystery
Arthur Conan Doyle
Sherlock Holmes, Book # 1
Digireads
1887
Paperback
123
English
October 27, 2019 October 27, 2019
"A Study in Scarlet" is the first published story of one of the most famous literary detectives of all time, Sherlock Holmes. Here Dr. Watson, who has just returned from a war in Afghanistan, meets Sherlock Holmes for the first time when they become flat-mates at the famous 221 B Baker Street. In "A Study in Scarlet" Sherlock Holmes investigates a murder at Lauriston Gardens as Dr. Watson tags along with Holmes while narratively detailing his amazing deductive abilities.
About the book
Yes, I decided to read a book that I should have read a long time ago. I don’t know why I’ve always postponed reading this book since I think I bought Doyle’s books 20 years ago and I’ve never read them. Did I like it? ? Hmm, the two stars seems to say no.
I do have opposite feelings about this book.
I liked the beginning, the characters’ introduction and the case, but I didn’t like the second part and this is the part that I read faster, because I did like the past narration. But I’m one who likes victory against religions where leaders are crazy people and by all means, I know that not all “rebels” win, but give me hope in a “fantasy” world? Yes I know that the case in the present couldn’t be presented as it is if the good guys won in the past, so it’s a circle with no end.
Anyway, I liked the beginning as I said, Holmes’s way of investigate is quite particular and thank God he explains how he gets certain ideas even in some ideas are just on the line of non-reality What I didn’t like is that in the middle of the book we know the killer and s/he is arrested, thing that by all means is okay if the author would explain rationally why, but no, we need to read pages and pages of the killer’s “backstory” and to read the why we need to read so much more that the case. So when I wanted the explanation, I didn’t get it but it is introduced a second part with very few characters from the first one and only after a lot of pages I could see some characters that I recognise from the first part. I thought I was reading another book all together.
But, and here there is a but… I read this part so fast that I couldn’t put down the book (well I did read the entire book quite fast since I read it in an afternoon) because I wanted to know the end, if the main characters from the second part could be free and find some thing to go against the leader of the sect, but obviously that never happened, because as I said, the case couldn’t happen in the present if they won in the past. So I was disappointed about the end, happy that certain people died, but sad about the killer’s ending. And this is ridiculous since we should stand by the victims, not the killer, right? Usually…
Will I read the other books? Yes, probably, I do have them in my TBR, maybe I’ll read one once in a while not all together.
