The Private Life of Sherlock Holmes (film review/analysis)

 

The Private Life of Sherlock Holmes is a 1970 film, directed by Billy Wilder and written by Wilder I. A. L. Diamond. It stars Robert Stephens as Sherlock Holmes and Colin Blakely as Doctor Watson.

The film features two original stories by the scriptwriters and presents an unusual take on the character of Sherlock Holmes. It is an highly interesting take as well, and I want to try to analyze it in depth, so besides this being a review it is a also an analysis of the film’s themes. I’m going to discuss the film’s plot in detail, I suggest watching it before reading this, it is a really good movie.

The idea at the heart of this film is that there is a difference between the in-universe reality of Holmes and the figure presented in the stories told by Watson and published in the Strand Magazine. This conceit is supported by canon, where Holmes does complain of Watson embellishing and romanticizing the stories, and of making Holmes seem almost infallible.

This idea is used to both dramatic and comedic effect. There are several jokes about the embellishments Watson has made, which include making Holmes taller by three inches and exaggerating Holmes’s violin playing skills.

But this premise develops into a serious theme: the difference between truth and fiction, both in the form of positive ideals and cunning deceit. Tied into this is a similar conflict between idealism and cynicism. The film also wants to explore the human desire for fiction, heroes and ideals. There is an ambiguity to these conflicts, one almost personified in the film by Sherlock Holmes.

Holmes claims to resent the idealized fictions created by Watson, yet he tries to be the hero Watson thinks him to be. Holmes complains about being expected by the reading public to wear the deerstalker and inverness cape, yet he still wears them.

Part of the reason for this might be that he is in love with Watson. The first part of the film tells a story where Holmes, in order to get out of an embarrassing situation lies and says he and Watson are in a romantic relationship. Watson is furious, but the viewer is left with the suggestion that it is not just a convenient lie for Holmes. Holmes speaks of five happy years together with Watson with an air of sincere wistfulness that suggests that he privately wants a romantic relationship between them to be true. So Holmes trying to be what Watson wants him to be might be an expression of his repressed love.

Of course, that is only part of it. Holmes also wants to be the romantic hero, despite everything. He is an idealistic man on a probably doomed crusade against the evils of the world.

The plot of the film’s second story brings the idealism of Sherlock into conflict with a cynical reality. Holmes investigates a case that seems like a traditional Holmes story: a mysterious damsel in distress, Ms. Valladon turns up unexpectedly on the doorstep of 221B and asks Holmes to find her missing husband. Holmes investigates the case, but is contacted by his brother Mycroft.

Mycroft is here presented as a Machiavellian and ruthless spy master for the British government. It is extrapolated from the Mycroft of the Bruce-Partington Plans, although the lean figure portrayed by Christopher Lee is very different from the “corpulent” canonical Mycroft.

Mycroft represents the cynical counterpoint to Sherlock’s idealism. His world is one of ruthless international espionage, technology and warfare. There might be a similar interplay between fiction and reality as in that of Holmes and Watson, but here it is about the complex web of deceptions and betrayals among spies.

Mycroft orders Sherlock to drop the case of Ms. Valladon on the behalf of the interests of the British government, without explaining exactly what those interests are. Sherlock however idealistically persists in helping Ms. Valladon and investigates the case despite disapproval from Mycroft and the government. The trail leads Sherlock to Loch Ness, where the root of the mystery seems to involve a sinister scheme involving a fake Loch Ness monster. In another case of this film’s themes of deception vs reality, Sherlock and Valladon pretend to be a married couple named Ashdown.

But eventually, the person behind the sinister scheme is revealed to be Mycroft. He is testing a submarine for the British Navy, disguising it as the monster. Mycroft reveals that Ms. Valladon is actually a German spy, named Ilse von Hoffmansthal.  She is using Sherlock to reveal information on the submarine. What seems at first to be a typical Holmesian mystery story reveals itself to be a subversion.

Holmes’ deductions are correct and lead him straight to the submarine mystery, but he fails to deduce the true nature of Ms. Valladon/von Hoffmansthal, thus falling into her trap.

It is especially ironic as Holmes twice in the film declares that he does not trust women, yet he commits this mistake. His assumptions are still sexist, but of a different kind. He just assumes Madame Valladon is an innocent damsel in distress because that is who he wants her to be. And that is how most his female clients in the canonical stories are like, but Ilse is not.

The irony in the film is present in the canon, where Holmes makes misogynistic statements about how “women are not to be trusted” but those words are never really borne out in his actions towards them. And while the story in the film is original, it is similar to his mistake with Irene Adler in A Scandal in Bohemia.

Despite his sexism, there is little doubt in the film that Sherlock is heroic, he is brave, intelligent and altruistic. But he is flawed in a human way, he does not always deduce the truth. And it is suggested that his heroism and idealism is not fit for the cynical modern era that is coming into being during the late Victorian era when the film takes place. It is an age of deceit he is not able to combat.

This violent and technological age is represented by the ruthless Mycroft and the submarine he is testing during the film. It is a war machine that unlike traditional battleships can kill entirely without warning. Mycroft explains that the British submarine has its equivalent among the German Kaiser, who is creating zeppelins that can similarly kill without warming, except from above.

The looming shadow of the coming world war where technology put to violent ends in the form of submarines and zeppelins would play an important role thus hangs over the film. “The Twentieth Century Approaches” as the title of an unrelated Russian Sherlock Holmes film with similar themes puts it.

But Mycroft’s submarine is opposed by Queen Victoria itself, who orders the submarine to be destroyed. It is highly symbolic that Queen Victoria herself, the very namesake of an age that encompassed most of the 19^th century, is the one who literally scuttles the submarine. Her alternative is just talking to the Kaiser, who is her grandson. Her solution comes from an old-fashioned, almost medieval worldview of sportsmanship and royal family ties. Victoria’s own old-fashioned idealism, similar in kind to Sherlock’s, has a brief victory, much to Sherlock’s amusement. It is a scene that doesn’t make much literal sense, the historical Queen Victoria never had that kind of power, but as comedy affirming the film’s theme, it works.

Afterwards, having been told of Madame Valladon’s true nature, Sherlock confronts her and leads her German spy allies into a trap and her to be arrested. It is a highly ironic scene, where Sherlock pretends to have figured out Von Hoffmansthal’s deception, but of course he didn’t, Mycroft just told him. And Mycroft didn’t use Holmesian deduction to do so either, but ordinary espionage. Through trickery similar to what has in reality defeated him, Sherlock upholds the legend of himself.  In a silent acknowledgement of her victory, Sherlock manages to convince Mycroft and the British government to have Ilse exchanged for a British spiy captured by the Germans.

In the film’s final scene, Sherlock learns in a letter from Mycroft of Ilse being executed while spying in Japan. And that in a kind of tribute to her experiences with Holmes, perhaps to Sherlock’s noble but doomed idealism, she had used the name Ashdown.

The Private Life of Sherlock Holmes is a thematically very interesting film, as I hopefully conveyed in this essay. It is a very well-made and enjoyable film too. The script and direction is superb. The complex mood of the story is beautifully sustained, with gentle comedy with some genuinely witty and funny moments serving an ultimately elegiac and melancholy mood.

The acting is excellent, with Robert Stephens in the lead role successfully conveying the variety of emotions Holmes goes through. Colin Blakely plays a comedic and somewhat bumbling Watson, albeit one that feels intelligent compared to Nigel Bruce. Geneviéne Page is convincing as the duplicitous but far from cold Ilse von Hofmansthal. And Christopher Lee, always a commanding screen presence, is perfect for the role of Mycroft as presented in this film. Authoritative, intelligent and with an ever-present hint of scheming menace.

The film is also beautiful to look at, with some very elaborate and well-constructed sets and props by production designer Alexander Trauner that are very impressive. The location shooting in Scotland at Inverness and Loch Ness makes for some beautiful shots.

A recording of Rósza conducting an orchestral suite based on his music in the film

Miklós Rózsa’s score is excellent and plays a big part of creating the movie’s elegiac mood. It features his violin concerto, which was originally a concert piece unrelated to Rósza’s film music, plus some music composed directly for the film.

As grand an achievement, the film which is viewable today is, it is sadly not what it was originally intended to be. The film was originally intended by the director Billy Wilder to be over 3 hours long and feature four stories. There were however cuts forced by the studio that removed two of the segments and pared down the film to about 2 hours.

And none of the cut scenes survive in their entirety, with both audio and visuals intact. Which is extremely unfortunate, as the cut segments sound very interesting. One is about Watson trying to solve a case on a ship and coming to a wrong conclusion, proving how difficult Holmes’s work is. The other is about Watson constructing a fake murder mystery to occupy Holmes’s mind in order to keep him away from cocaine.

The cocaine is present in the film, one of the first Holmes films to directly show him using cocaine after the death of the Hays code. But it isn’t developed much, beyond the suggestion that Holmes’s stated reason of the drug just relieving boredom is not entirely the truth. He clearly takes it at times of emotional distress, such as in the ending when learning of Ilse’s death.  And there is also a barely developed theme of Watson worrying just as in canon over Holmes’s cocaine use, here in the film taking the trouble of hiding Holmes’s supply and diluting the famous seven-per-cent solution to a five percent one.

This lack of development is probably due to that story segment being cut, which is a shame. More development of Holmes’s cocaine habit, as well as his friendship with Watson and his worries about his friend’s drug use would be interesting.

Still, even in abridged form, The Private Life of Sherlock Holmes remains an interesting and highly enjoyable film. There have been more films about Sherlock Holmes than any other fictional character besides perhaps Dracula, this is one of the best.

The Seven-Per-Cent Solution by Nicholas Meyer

 A novel, and it’s three adaptations.

This 1974 novel by Nicholas Meyer is perhaps the most famous Sherlock Holmes pastiche novel. It was a best-seller when released, was partly responsible for a revival of interest in Sherlock Holmes in the 70s, and its success has inspired the publication of many, many more Holmes pastiche books.

It’s success and status in the Holmes fandom has led to it being adapted at least three times. And I’m going to talk about and review not only the novel, but also its three adaptations which have been made over the years: the 1976 film, the 1993 BBC Radio Drama and the 2016 comic book.

To discuss the story and its adaptations properly, I’m going to explain the plot, including the ending, so be warned.

The book’s take on Holmes is revisionist. It focuses on Holmes’s use of cocaine, which in the novel has by 1891 became an addiction that might kill him. Professor Moriarty being an evil criminal mastermind is Holmes’ delusion, created by his compulsive use of cocaine. In reality, Moriarty is an innocent mathematics tutor, who once taught both Sherlock and Mycroft when they were children.

To cure Sherlock of his addiction, which might soon turn fatal, Doctor Watson and Mycroft Holmes lure him to Vienna, to meet Sigmund Freud, the father of psychoanalysis. Freud is to treat and cure Holmes of his drug addiction.

After much effort by Holmes himself especially, Holmes is put on the part of recovery. Then he discovers a mystery involving one of Freud’s patients, and the game is afoot once more.

As mentioned, this book was a huge success. And it is understandable, for it is a very well-written book. Meyer’s imitation of Watson’s style is successful and feels authentic. The premise is interesting and inventive. The first part of the book, showing Holmes’ in the grips of a terrible drug addiction, his and Doctor Watson’s valiant efforts to help him recover is emotionally powerful. The close friendship between Holmes and Watson is very well depicted.

The second part of the book shows Holmes, Watson and Freud working together to solve a mystery. It is a very good mystery and is exhilarating to read about. The entire trio get to show their skills, and the idea of a team-up between Holmes and Freud is used to great effect.

It culminates in an amazing action scene with a train chase and a swordfight atop a train. The scene may be silly, complete with a “cutting up a train car for fuel” part straight out the Marx Brothers Go West, but very fun.

It has high stakes, involving a possible war in Europe, which adds to the excitement, but it still feels grounded enough to be a fitting case for Holmes. Despite the politics involved, it is still rooted in personal/psychological problems (which provides a role for Freud to make deductions of his own). Holmes is also unable to change history through his actions, he himself notes that he has at most only delayed a European war, which of course eventually broke out in 1914. This helps further ground the case in reality.

Meyer’s book is a good example of how Holmes is adapted to fit the times. Despite being a period piece set in 1891, the novel is very much a product of the 1970s. The frank depiction of Holmes’s drug use was due to a greater openness about drugs and their effects in culture at the time. The depiction of Holmes as a fallible hero due to his drug use also fit the sceptical cultural mood at the time, even if the second half re-establishes him as a heroic figure.

Holmes philosophizing on war and violence in the comic book adaptation, as is typical of the comic book, the words are pretty much verbatim from the book.

The theme of the second part of the book is clearly anti-war, with the backstory involving a pacifist quaker woman trying to destroy an arms manufacturing empire and Holmes trying to stop a war in Europe. After the disaster of the Vietnam War, this fit the prevailing anti-war mood in the western world perfectly.

Of course, despite being a product of its time in these aspects, the book doesn’t feel dated for the most time, because the time period in which it was written mostly is expressed through themes. The 1891 time period, the style of the novel and the characters Holmes and Watson’s feels true to the original stories.

Holmes’s praise of Freud in the comic book adaptation, again the words are pretty much directly from the original novel.

The novel has probably dated the most in its positive depiction of Freud and his ideas. Freudianism was going through a period of popularity in the 1970s. Although I’m on the whole against freudian ideas, the depiction here wasn’t that annoying to me.  I must admit that the comparisons made between Holmes’ detective work and Freud’s work are actually quite clever. Freud’s case studies read like detective stories after all (and are probably just as fictionalized).

Freud’s involvement culminates in the final twist of the novel, where Freud is able through hypnosis reveal a traumatic experience in Holmes’ childhood. His father killed his mother, due to her affair with his tutor Professor Moriarty. And the novel presents Freud’s predictable analysis of this uncritically: this traumatic event explains why he became a detective and fighter of crime, why he used cocaine, why Moriarty became a malignant figure in his delusion and so on. It’s of course silly, although it is fitting for a novel involving Freud and Holmes to end like this, with Freud’s theories being applied to the great detective.

The novel was adapted into a film directed by Herbert Ross in 1976, with a screenplay by Meyer himself. And I have mixed feelings about it. The novel is flawed, but the changes made for the film make it worse. The main problem is that they changed a lot of the mystery in the second-half. It involves an evil baron, a damsel in distress and a train chase, but there the similarities pretty much end. The book’s complex backstory involving the morality of weapons manufacturing and a possible war in Europe is jettisoned.

Instead we get a simplistic “rescue the damsel in distress” story.  And it is a racist/orientalist plot as well: An evil Ottoman Pasha wants to kidnap a white woman for his seraglio. This is a massive change for the worse.

The original plot was sexist also in its  “damsel in distress” nature, but it was more interesting. The themes of weapons manufacturing, a war in Europe and the woman Nancy Slater’s opposition to it raised interesting themes and raised the stakes for the story. And while she was damseled, the woman’s moral principles and intelligence was what put that plot into motion.

The film’s plot has none of those engaging features, and it is just boring and clichéd. It is racist and was extremely unoriginal even back in 1976. Also, it’s a minor and underdeveloped part of the film, but the film’s clumsy attempt to hint at a romantic relationship between Lola and Holmes was just annoying and felt out of character for Holmes.

Of course, the film has its merits as well, which is why I have mixed feelings about it. Certain aspects of the film are quite excellent. The film is very well-made overall. The direction and cinemtography is odd sometimes but conveys the suffering Holmes goes through well. The acting is excellent, especially Nicol Williamson as a Holmes in a very difficult situation. Robert Duvall’s Watson is held back by his stuffy attempt at an english accent, but his part is decent otherwise. Alan Arkin is a convincing and authorative Freud. Vanessa Redgrave is underutilized as Lola Deveareaux but she is always fun to see. We even get a bit of luxury casting with Laurence Olivier as in the small role of Moriarty.

And for certain stretches, the film works very well. The first half or so of the film is excellent, and adapts the novel rather closely, with only minor and insignificant changes. The film goes off the rails in the second half due to substituting the strong mystery of the book with a weaker one. But the climatic train chase is on par with the one in the book and very fun. Ridiculous, but such an entertaining and exciting scene. Perhaps one of my favourite action scenes in cinema, if I’m to be perfectly honest.

The film is very uneven, and the changes made from the book generally only weaken the story, but there is enough good things that it can be worth watching. The climatic train scene is so fun that it makes up for the weak mystery plot that led there.

There was also a 1993 BBC radio drama adaptation of the book. It stars Simon Callow as Holmes, who also played the role in the “Unopened Case-book of Sherlock Holmes”, a series of pastiche radio dramas aired on the BBC the same year. It has almost been (unfairly) forgotten, but can be found on the OTR Researchers Library website.

This radio version takes some cues from the film in how it dramatizes the story, but as is the standard for BBC Radio adaptations of literature, much more faithful to the book and retains the mystery from it. And it is much more stronger because of that. The acting isn’t on the level of the film or the contemporary Clive Merrison/Michael Williams BBC Holmes dramas, but still quite strong. Callow is a good Holmes and Ian Hogg as Watson outdoes Duvall from the film. It is a bit rushed due to only being 90 minutes, but is an excellent and faithful version of the book that is a far less uneven experience than the film.

Similarly faithful to the book is the 2015-2016 comic book adaptation, written by Scott and David Tipton with art by Ron Joseph. The script follows the book very faithfully. There are some minor cuts to the story to make the story work as a 100 page comic, but no major changes. It is so faithful that there isn’t actually anything to say about the comic’s writing that I haven’t already said about the source material.  The art is well-done and nice, even if I’m not that enamoured with how Joseph draws humans, but that is probably a taste thing.

The Sherlock Holmes Stories by Arthur Conan Doyle

Illustration by Sidney Paget, for "The Man with the Twisted Lip "

These are my reviews of the Sherlock Holmes canon, the sixty stories written by Arthur Conan Doyle featuring the detective. Each review was written shortly after reading the story, with some minimal editing and additions after the fact. I hope each story having at least one sentence each enables me to go more in depth on certain stories than any sweeping review of the entire canon could, but due to this structure and writing process, the result is long (Almost 9000 words) and probably a bit repetitive.

Some of the reviews are briefer than others, because due to the simple and formulaic nature of the stories, it is sometimes hard to think of things to say about them. This is also cause of some of the repetition. This doesn’t mean the stories are bad, some of my briefest reviews in this text are for the stories I like the most.

The reviews of the stories are in the order that they were first published, which is often not how collected editions place them, with some exceptions. For the re-reading which is the basis of these reviews, I mostly used “The Complete Illustrated Sherlock Holmes”, published in 1986 by Omega Books. That book reproduces the illustrations and lay-out of the original Strand magazine publications (where all but the first two Holmes stories were first published), and also place them in the order they were originally published in “The Strand”. So “The Valley of Fear” is placed between “The Dying Detective” and “His Last Bow” and so on. It is a nice book, even if the illustrations are often reproduced poorly.

There are spoilers for the entire canon, of course. But also to a book by Friedrich Dürrenmatt, Das Versprechen (The Pledge), for I discuss the similarity of the ending of that story to a Holmes story.

A Study In Scarlet.

The first Holmes story is a short novel. The introductions of Doctor Watson and Sherlock is iconic, and often more adapted than the plot of the novel itself. It is undoubtedly very effective. First we meet Watson who acts as narrator and viewpoint character. For the audience, he provides a normal and relatable view that the super-intelligent Holmes can not provide. The story then sets up Holmes and his abilities quite well through his actions, the famous “You have been in Afghanistan, I perceive." and the subsequent murder investigation.

Of course the Holmes character is slightly different from what he later became, most infamously his bizarre belief his memory has limited space so he carefully selects the things he knows, which doesn't include the fact that the Earth revolves around the Sun, Later stories made him more of an educated gentleman.

Of course, the bulk of the second half of the book is taken with the murderer Jefferson Hope's backstory, which explains his motives for the killings. It is quite impopular, mostly because there is neither Holmes or Watson. The story would have benefited from having more for them to do in this story. The history is also quite inaccurate, the early mormons under Brigham Young's leadership did very bad things, but they were quite not the leering villains here. But as clumsy as it is, this part of the story does work to give a depth of personality to the murderer and a motive for his crimes.

The Sign of the Four 

The second story is also a short novel. The story here is similar, but the book focuses more on Holmes and Watson solving the mystery. Still, the ending has a long monologue from the villain Jonathan Small explaining the backstory to the events.

And it is quite an effective and suspenseful detective story. This story gives  Holmes and Watson more to do, which is a good choice. It makes the narrative more exciting than “A Study”. There are some very effective and atmospheric scenes throughout the entire narrative. The set-up of Mary Morstan perplexing case, the strange Thaddeus Sholto and his oriental props, like the water pipe, the frightening murder of Bartholomew Sholto, and finally the exciting boat chase.

The peg-legged villain Jonathan Small is also memorable. A killer, who is greedy and selfish, but he also has a code of honour and loyalty. His monologue works a lot better than Jefferson Hope's backstory in the previous book. It is long, but not too long as Hope's, and it gains immensely from being written in the intimate first person instead of being depicted in a distancing third-person perspective.

There are some enjoyable character moments, which gives further depth to their characters and relationship. This novel introduces Holmes infamous cocaine use and sharpens Holmes's eccentric mood swings between lethargic boredom and excited curiosity (for the modern reader, Holmes might remind them of bipolar disorder.). 

The opening scene of Holmes deducing the existence and life of Watson's brother from a watch is a fine proof of his skills. And this scenes illustrates something about Holmes's occasional rudeness that modern adaptations often get wrong. Here Holmes upsets Watson by deducing his brother's alcoholism and eventual death. And when he notices this, Holmes says this: “My dear doctor,” said he, kindly, “pray accept my apologies. Viewing the matter as an abstract problem, I had forgotten how personal and painful a thing it might be to you."

Modern adaptations like BBC Sherlock often have Holmes being truly nasty and then it being excused with him being a genius, so it is ok. But the canonical Holmes is not like that, he can sometimes be very inconsiderate and rude, but it is often because he forgets to take the other person's feelings into accounts and when he realizes what he has done, he apologizes. This is often how the failures of empathy in autistic people in real life play out. And this part of the book is a very good example of that. One of the few adaptations to get this right is interestingly The Great Mouse Detective, with its version of Holmes, Basil, capturing this well.

Holmes overall is revealed in this book to have other fine qualities than his intelligence, more so than in “A Study”. There is a moving scene where he plays the violin to put Watson to sleep. He is also a more cultured and broadly educated man here, who can quote Goethe in the original German. His playfulness and eccentricity is shown in a scene where he fools Doctor Watson and the policeman Athelney Jones with a disguise.

Of course he also has faults including the rudeness mentioned above and a strange misogyny, as he reveals in his remark "Women are never to be entirely trusted,—not the best of them.” Even Watson calls this an "atrocious sentiment". But the business of Holmes and women will be dealt with in the next story, “A Scandal in Bohemia.”

This story also has a love story between Doctor Watson and the client of the case, Mary Morstan. It is not overly intrusive, but also not well-developed enough to be interesting. She is an ok character, but Mary is largely sidelined after the first few chapters, and her main purpose in the plot is to introduce the strange case to Holmes, which is more connected to her late father than herself.

While the narrative distances itself from Holmes's misogyny, the same can't be said about the racism. Some later stories like “The Yellow Face” warn against racism, but this prejudice is sadly on display here. The depiction of the Andaman Islander Tonga is shockingly bigoted, with his ethnic group being described as "naturally hideous". It mars what is otherwise a fine mystery and adventure story.

The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes

A Scandal in Bohemia

This story is a fairly simple parable, with the moral that women can be just as clever as men. It features one of the most well-remembered characters in the canon, the former opera singer and adventuress Irene Adler. And despite only appearing in this story, she is remembered for a very good reason: she defeats Holmes in a battle of wits. He underestimates her due to his misogyny, and loses due to it. That is why he keeps her photograph in the ending. "It was not that he felt any emotion akin to love for Irene Adler", but instead Holmes keeps it to remind himself not to make the same mistake again. He has now learned the folly of his dismissive opinions on women: "He used to make merry over the cleverness of women, but I have not heard him do it of late."

Irene is also not even an villain, Holmes is hired to steal a photograph from her by her paranoid ex-lover the King of Bohemia, who merely fears she will blackmail and ruin him, and he is the true villain of the piece. And it is not until the ending that Holmes fully realizes this himself. This is also why he wants Adler's photograph, it is also a moral loss for him.

The story of Holmes's and Adler's battle of wits is very enjoyable and while the story is not perfectly feminist, the moral was a daring one for Victorian Britain. The character of Irene Adler has been gravely mistreated by later adaptations, but now that Holmes has been turned into an icon of male intelligence, the story of his defeat by a woman has even stronger associations.

The Red-headed League

This is one of the best stories in the canon, and it is a fine demonstration of the core appeal of a Holmes story. The opening sets up a perplexing and seemingly inexplicable mystery, and the pleasure is to Holmes solve the problem and arrive at a rational explanation. The strange story of Jabez Wilson and the Red-headed league is one of the canon’s most imaginative and confusing mysteries, and has a very satisfying explanation. Doyle must have realized this on some level, maybe subconsciously, for he re-made this story at least twice (in “The Stockbroker’s Clerk” and The Three Garridebs”)

One of my favourite stories.

A Case of Identity

Another fun story, which sets up an interesting mystery and unravels it. Holmes's monologue in the beginning on how strange and interesting "ordinary" life can be is a great view into his worldview, as is his righteous anger at the villain of the story.

The Boscombe Valley Mystery

This is one of my favourite stories: the mystery is engaging, as is the psychology behind the murderer, victim and the crimes. The description of Holmes investigating the murder scene is fun. This story feels like the origin of the Perry Mason/ Ace Attorney type of story: There is someone who is accused of the crime and they seem obviously guilty, but the detective doesn't believe in their guilt and eventually reveals someone else committed the crime.  Also the illustrator Sidney Paget drew the first image of Holmes in a deerstalker for this story.

The Five Orange Pips

Another good story, the opening with the raging storm is very atmospheric, and the mystery is well-told. Although nowadays when the Ku Klux Klan are well-known, it is no longer any mystery who the "KKK" is. They are an interesting choice of villain here.

The resolution is odd but interesting, where Holmes figures out who the murderers are, but before he can confront them they die in a random shipwreck.

It actually reminds me of a much later novel by Friedrich Dürrenmatt, Das Versprechen. It is a deliberate subversion of the detective story, where the detective sets an ingenious trap for a murderer and it would have worked, except the killer dies in a unrelated car accident. This anti-climax is meant to expose the blind spots of the traditional detective story's belief in rational thought to solve all problems. Here the rational mind of the detective is foiled by a coincidence. Dürrenmatt therefore gave his story the subtitle of a "requiem for the detective novel".

So even if Conan Doyle didn't have similar intentions to Dürrenmatt, it is interesting to note that this type of climax is already present in a Sherlock Holmes story, the ultimate example of the kind of detective story Dürrenmatt was trying to deconstruct.

The Man with the Twisted Lip

Another good story, with a solid mystery and a pleasing resolution. Although the amounts of money that "Hugh Boone" supposedly earns through begging defies belief. Still, this story has some of the most memorable imagery in the canon, such as Watson finding Holmes in the Opium den in the beginning and Holmes sitting up all night to solve the mystery, the subject of that famous Paget illustration.

It also has one of the more glaring errors in the canon, when Mary calls her husband “James” instead of John. There are several fan theories trying to explain why, most famously Dorothy Sayers’s idea that the “H.” in Watson’s name stands for Hamish, which is the Scottish version of James.

The Adventure of The Blue Carbuncle

A very fun, light-hearted story. The beginning bit, with Holmes deducing things about a man from his lost hat is such a good way to show his abilities, as is him tricking a man into giving up information with a false bet. It is another story where someone is unjustly accused and Holmes clear their name. Holmes letting the thief go free from any punishment also reveals that his strong system of morality is not identical with that of the law.

 

The Adventure of The Speckled Band

This is a justly famous story and one of my favourites, the murder mystery is great, Roylott is a good villain and the finale with Holmes confronting "The Speckled Band" of the title is atmospheric and suspenseful.

The Adventure of the Engineer's Thumb

This is an odd story, Holmes doesn't actually do much, the finale allows him to do some deductions, but it doesn't really affect the plot. Instead is the engineer of the title telling the story of how he lost his thumb. It is a suspenseful story at least, but Holmes and Watson are basically side-characters in this.

The Adventure of the Noble Bachelor

Another fun story, with a perplexing mystery that Holmes solves beautifully.

The Adventure of the Beryl Coronet

This story is also a fun and well-constructed mystery, with a similar theme as “The Boscombe Valley Mystery”: Holmes's deductions rescuing someone who looks guilty at first glance but is actually unjustly accused.

The Adventure of the Copper Beeches

This story is similar to “The Engineer’s Thumb” in that most of it is the story that Holmes's client tells to him. The character of Violet Hunter is very memorable, and one of my favourite female characters in the canon. She is an intelligent person, with agency, who does much of the investigation by herself. She is one of the reasons why this story works better than “The Engineer’s Thumb” The mystery here is more interesting as well. And Holmes and Watson get more to do in the story’s finale than in the earlier story. One of my favourite stories.

The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes

The Adventure of Silver Blaze

This is also a famous and beloved story and justly so. It is a solid murder mystery, with a satisfying but unexpected solution.

The Adventure of the Yellow Face

Compared to “Silver Blaze” this story is not talked about much, but i really like it. It shows Holmes as fallible, here his deduction is very much wrong. And it has a charming anti-racist message, the ending is very moving.

The Adventure of the Cardboard Box

Another murder mystery, not one of the best but good. The idea of cut-off ears being mailed in a package is very memorable, and the murderer’s tale is compelling. Note that this story is usually placed in the His Last Bow collection, but was written and first published around the time of the other stories in the Memoirs, so i place my review here. Apparently the tale of adultery was too controversial for the 1890s, so it was removed from most publications of the Memoirs.

The Adventure of the Stockbroker's Clerk

This story is pretty much a remake of “The Red-headed League” and while this is still a fun story, with some original elements, the result is weaker than its origin.

The Adventure of the Gloria Scott

This story is another one where Holmes doesn't do much, he basically just learns another person's story.  At least it is an interesting story. It is mainly remarkable for being Holmes's first case, and while Watson writes it down, it is told in the first person by Holmes and includes interesting details for fan theorists about his early student days.

The adventure of the Musgrave Ritual

Another story of an early pre-watson case of Holmes, and this one is more effective. It is a very fun story and a favourite of mine. The idea of the ritual text being clues to a hidden treasure is very compelling, as is the tragic drama of Brunton and Rachel. The introduction, with the description of the eccentric domestic life at 221B is very good.

The Adventure of the Reigate Squire

Another of my favourite stories. "The whole question of the Netherland-Sumatra company and of the colossal schemes of Baron Maupertins" is one of the most compelling references to an untold story in the canon. And then Holmes pretending to be mentally and physically weakened to catch the killers is a great idea for a story

The Adventure of the Crooked Man

A good, if not outstanding story. The introduction with Holmes visiting Watson is very good and a nice character moment for both of them. The strange death of the Colonel is a good strange mystery, and Holmes does some good detective work here. Even if the story is essentially him uncovering the dramatic backstory to the case. At least, it is a good backstory.

The Adventure of the Resident Patient.

This story actually starts with Watson explaining that Holmes's involvement in this case is minimal. Holmes doesn't actually prevent the murder of the eponymous resident patient here from happening, or catch the criminals, he just figures out the mystery and reveals the story. The mystery here is decent, as is the story of crime and revenge that explains it and Holmes does some fine deductive reasoning to reveal it. A good if not outstanding story.

The adventure of the Greek interpreter

The main story here is similar to “The Engineer’s Thumb”, in that most of it is Sherlock and Watson listening to their client’s story, and then Sherlock deducing the truth. Here the heroes at least affect the plot by saving the life of the Greek interpreter Melas.

It is a solid mystery, but what truly makes this story so memorable is of course the introduction of Mycroft Holmes, Sherlock’s extremely sedentary older brother. He is a very compelling figure, despite only appearing briefly in the canon (the very idea of the Diogenes Club, the club for unsocial people is an amusing and interesting idea as well). The very idea of someone being better at deductive reasoning than Sherlock is interesting in itself, but it has a clear purpose. Mycroft may be more skilled than Sherlock in that regard, but he is purely an armchair reasoner. Thus it is Sherlock who is the capable detective, by his willingness to go out and look for evidence, which Mycroft lacks. Mycroft thus better defines Sherlock’s character, by way of contrast making clearer what exactly is Sherlock’s skill set.

Interestingly, Mycroft’s character would be changed for the second and last story he would appear in, “The Bruce-Partington Plans”. Here Mycroft merely “has an extraordinary faculty for figures, and audits the books in some of the government departments.” The latter story has quite a different idea of his role in the government, but we’ll get to that.

The Adventure of the Naval Treaty

This story probably has the highest stakes of any Holmes up to this point. The theft of the treaty has implications for international politics and the UK’s role in them, and Holmes has never dealt with a problem of this scale before. It is fairly long for a Holmes short story as well. It is interesting to consider that this was the penultimate Holmes story, before Holmes was killed off for many years in “The Final Problem”. It was maybe intended to act as a kind of logical end-point for the series, the story of one of Holmes’s greatest triumphs, before his fatal battle with Moriarty at Reichenbach.

It also has one of the most memorable moments in the canon, where Holmes philosophizes about a rose, which provides one of the sharpest insights into his worldview

Still, the story is actually quite low-key for all that. Holmes doesn’t need to go on some epic trip across Europe and get involved in international espionage intrigue to recover the treaty as you might expect. Instead the solution is found to lie within the client’s own home and family.

It is a charming, well-written mystery, and a good penultimate story for the Memoirs.

The Adventure of the Final Problem

This is rightly one of the most well-remembered stories in the canon, simply because it kills off Holmes. It didn’t stick, but for almost a decade, this was the end of Sherlock Holmes.

And to justify that, Doyle decided the best way for Holmes to die was for him to sacrifice himself to rid the world of perhaps its most dangerous villain. Thus, enter Professor Moriarty. He is only in two stories, but is an extremely memorable character. The very idea of Moriarty is extremely compelling. He is a master criminal who organizes, plans and controls an extensive criminal network, yet remains undetected by the law. An evil counterpart to Holmes, and his worthiest foe. Without being one, Moriarty is the literary ancestor of practically every supervillain which came after.

Of course, in the story, Moriarty has the problem of coming out of nowhere, and we don’t really get to see him do things as the “napoleon of crime”. Holmes just explains to Watson who Moriarty is in a monologue, and Watson doesn’t really see Moriarty do anything. It only works because it is a very good monologue. It is carried by the imaginative strength of the very idea of Moriarty, and the powerful scene of the dialogue between Holmes and Moriarty described therein.

But the problematic nature of this method of storytelling is why several adaptations try to set-up Moriarty more. For example, both the 1980s Soviet tv series and the Granada series first introduce Moriarty by showing him to be behind another case leading into their adaptation of the Final Problem (“Charles Augustus Milverton” in the Soviet series and “The Red-headed League” in Granada ). This might also be why Doyle would revisit the character of the professor in “The Valley of Fear”. The BBC Sherlock series takes this to extremes and has the opposite problem: too much set-up and too little pay-off.

Moriarty still serves his purpose very well, by being an enemy to Holmes worthy of him sacrificing his life for. And it is a sacrifice, Holmes deliberately sends Watson away so he can face Moriarty alone. Of course, this means we end up with the odd situation where Watson actually doesn’t witness Holmes’s death, he only assumes it happens. This would of course later give Doyle a way out when he later retconned Holmes’s death in “The Empty House”.

However, when it was written, it was earnestly intended as the final Holmes story. And for many of us who have a deep affection for the character of Sherlock Holmes, it still has the capacity to move us. Holmes’s final letter, and the following final remarks retain their power. A story which reveals how deeply felt the relationship between Watson and Holmes is.

The Hound of the Baskervilles

This was the first Holmes story in about 8 years, and neatly avoids the problem of the death of Holmes by simply being set before it. And it is a most welcome return, for this is one of the best stories. This is many fans favourite Holmes story, and maybe it is mine as well.

It is undoubtedly the best of the four novels, without the weird structure of “A study” and “Valley of Fear”. And it is not weighed down by the love story between Watson and Mary Morstan and occasional racism like “The Sign of the Four”.

The plot is strong, with a compelling mystery. The dark and gothic atmosphere is one of the best of any Holmes story. This atmophere is sustained thanks to some extremely memorable imagery and scenes. The legend of the hound, the mystery of Sir Charles Baskerville’s death, the Dartmoor setting with the dangerous Grimpen Mire, and the final confrontation with the eponymous hound.

The story suggests the supernatural, but the mystery is eventually revealed to have a rational explanation. This type of reveal can be disappointing, but it isn’t here, thanks to the solution still being interesting. The hound is still scary, despite not being a ghost. And the atmosphere is not reliant on these hints of the supernatural and merely uses it for additional colouring.

Another strength of the story are its characters. The novel seems to teem with interesting characters. Even side characters who turn out to not be that important to the main plot are compelling and memorable, such as The Barrymore couple and the convict Selden or the eccentric Mr. Frankland.

The love story here, between Henry Baskerville and Beryl Stapleton works better than the one between Mary Morstan and Watson in “The Sign of the Four”, because here it is more relevant to the main plot.

Holmes has some very memorable moments, from his deductions about Dr. Mortimer’s walking stick, his secret sojourn out on the moor and him battling the hound. But Holmes is absent from the bulk of the novel. Instead, this is probably the longest stretch in the canon where Watson carries the story alone, separated from Holmes. And it works well, as he is as always an enjoyable character and proves his worth as an investigator.

 

The Return of Sherlock Holmes

The Adventure of the Empty House.

A good murder mystery story, that is entirely overshadowed by this story being the return of Sherlock Holmes, from the dead.

Just as the The Final Problem’s purpose was to kill off Holmes, this story’s purpose is to resurrect him. And it works rather smoothly, as Conan Doyle exploits the structure of “The Final Problem” to retcon Holmes’s death. Everything in that story is from Watson’s perspective, and he doesn’t actually see Holmes die, he only assumes Holmes did from the evidence left behind. So Conan Doyle only needs to come up with an alternate explanation for this evidence, in which Holmes survives, and now Holmes just has to turn up and explain that.

There is a mystery here too, a locked room one with a seemingly impossible murder via a gunshot that no one heard. It is a decent one, if naturally overshadowed by Holmes’s return. And it introduces us to the interesting idea that Watson has tried to solve crimes during Holmes’s great hiatus, which is a thought that deserves to be expanded upon in pastiches/fan fiction (and probably has, to be fair).

It is the villain of this story, Sebastian Moran which ties this story together, as he is both the answer to the murder mystery and the greater mystery of why Holmes faked his death. Moran is like Moriarty a very utilitarian villain. If Moriarty’s purpose was to create a credible threat that it is worth Holmes’s sacrificing his life to defeat, Moran’s purpose is to be the threat that explains why Holmes went into hiding by faking his death.

Still, Moran is very memorable. Not the least is his close connection to Moriarty, which is so close that Holmes’s describes him as Moriarty’s “bosom friend”. This is of course an intriguing concept and numerous fan fictions has expanded on this by making Moran into the Moriarty’s own Watson figure.

Moran was essentially expanded from an off-hand comment by Holmes in the Final Problem about being threatened by air-guns, and here we get an explanation for that, which also solves the murder mystery. Moran has a uniquely powerful airgun, constructed by a blind german mechanic named Von Herder on Moriarty’s orders, that can kill people noiselessly by firing expanding revolver bullets. This invention steps slightly into the realm of science fiction, but not so much as to compel disbelief. And it is an intriguing, frightening idea: a master marksman who uses a noiseless sniper rifle to kill from afar. Snipers with silenced weapons is a common idea in modern thriller stories, often exaggerating the efficiency of gun silencers. and here is a very early example of it, perhaps the first.

The Adventure of the Norwood Builder.

This is another story on the theme of “The Boscombe Valley Mystery and “The Beryl Coronet”: man is accused of crime, looks obviously guilty, but Holmes is able to reveal his innocence. And it is a fine variation on that basic theme. Holmes’s doubt in his own deductions makes his investigation more emotionally charged, and the solution, involving a hidden room is good.

The opening remarks on Moriarty are interesting as well.

The Adventure of the Dancing Men.

One of my favourite stories. The mystery here of the eponymous dancing men is one of the strongest and most memorable in the canon, the sketches of them dancing across the pages are unforgettable. The dark and dramatic backstory and the events of the story gives this story a human and emotional element beyond the satisfaction of Holmes solving the cypher messages.

The Adventure of the Solitary Cyclist.

This story is similar to the Adventure of the Copper Beeches, in that a young governess is discovers there is some mystery with her new employer. Even the first name of the woman in this story is the same as that of the earlier one: Violet.

And The solitary cyclist is the weaker story, mainly because Violet Smith is a less compelling character than Violet Hunter. Smith ends up taking a far less active role in the plot and ultimately ends up damseled.

It is not a bad story, all things considered. Enough things are changed to make the story stand out. The stakes are far more personal for Violet Smith, and like the “The Dancing Men” there is an appeal to the dark and dramatic events told here.

The Adventure of the Priory School

This is a very fun story. The mystery is compelling, with an unexpected solution, with strong characterization for the figures involved. And how Holmes solves it makes for interesting reading. There is a strong emphasis on him examing the physical environment here, and Watson and the reader gets to follow along with him doing that, with an extended sequence of Holmes and Watson following tire tracks left by bicycles.

The Adventure of Black Peter.

A very good story, with a strong mystery. The story of Black Peter is compelling, a tragic drama man whose evil doings eventually led to his own murder. This story introduces an interesting side-character: Stanley Hopkins, a young promising policeman who tries to learn from Holmes’s methods, but ultimately disappoints his teacher. This is another story in the Boscombe Valley Mystery mold, with an obvious guilty suspect which Holmes proves innocent. There is also unforgettable image of the murder victim impaled by a harpoon. A very good story, with a strong mystery.

The Adventure of Charles Augustus Milverton

This is one of my favourite Holmes stories. The story has one of the best villains, the blackmailer Charles Augustus Milverton. Doyle skillfully establishes him in a few paragraphs as utterly nauseating in how smugly he wields his power gained from blackmail. That Holmes finds Milverton to be perhaps the most detestable villain he has ever fought says a lot.

And the interesting thing is, Holmes and Watson can’t defeat Milverton by normal means. He is safely protected by his blackmail knowledge. Instead, Holmes has to break both moral and legal rules to bring him down. Holmes pretends to seduce Milverton’s maid to gain knowledge on Milverton’s home Appledore towers. It is entirely pretense and this deception is one of the worst things he does in the entire canon. And it is all for the purpose of making it easier for Holmes to illegally break into Appledore and retrieve the incriminating letters of his client. It is all for the greater good of bringing down the evil that is Milverton, but the fact that Holmes must stoop to such lows to defeat him is what makes this story so interesting and Milverton such a great villain.

The dialogue Holmes and Watson has before their break-in is one of their seminal moments. Holmes wants to keep Watson out of danger, but Watson is having none of it and forcefully convinces Holmes to bring him along. It is a touching depiction of the strong friendship between the two.

After breaking into Appledore towers, Holmes and Watson become the hidden witnesses to Milverton’s death at the hands of a woman he hurt via his blackmailing. Sure, by the rules of traditional storytelling she comes out of nowhere. But it makes sense, considering how many people Milverton is previously established to have hurt. It is more satisfying if he is killed by someone who has a personal connection to his crimes. Him being killed like that underscores the idea of Milverton as a villain the ordinary methods of the law can not reach, and justice can only be brought to him extra-legally.

And Holmes and Watson still play a role, by destroying Milverton’s blackmail material and covering up the anonymous woman’s murder. The dialogue with Lestrade at the end where Holmes acts ignorant and naive about the whole thing is very funny too: “Criminals! Said Holmes “Plural!”

The Adventure Of the Six Napoleons

Another of my favourites. The mystery of why someone would smash the busts of napoleon is very good. It has that perplexing and strange nature a good Holmesian mystery should have. And the solution, and Holmes’s reasoning to reach it are very satisfying.

The Adventure of the Three Students

A good little mystery, quite charming in how low-stakes it is. No murder, just a case of possible cheating at a university.

The Adventure of the Golden Pince-nez

A good story, the mystery is decent and the solution is engaging if melodramatic. This story again features Stanley Hopkins.

The Adventure of the Missing Three-Quarter

Another story that is charming for its low-stakes, nothing would have changed if Holmes hadn’t solved the mystery and no crime has been committed. Yet Holmes solving it is very entertaining, and his battle of wits with Doctor Lance Armstrong, one of his strongest opponents is fun. This story also establishes that Holmes no longer uses cocaine, cured of this bad habit by Watson.

The Adventure of the Abbey Grange

This story’s theme is very interesting. One of Doyle’s social causes in real life was the reform of divorce laws to make them more favourable to women, arguing that the English law in the Victorian and Edwardian eras trapped women in abusive marriages. And this story clearly illustrates this, being about Mary Fraser, a woman who marries a man only to find he is an abusive drunkard.

“Sir Eustace was a confirmed drunkard. To be with such a man for an hour is unpleasant. Can you imagine what it means for a sensitive and high-spirited woman to be tied to him for day and night? It is a sacrilege, a crime, a villainy to hold that such a marriage is binding. I say that these monstrous laws of yours will bring a curse upon the land—God will not let such wickedness endure."

This unhappy situation eventually ends in the murder mystery of the story. Eustace attacks Jack Crocker, the man who really loves Mary, and the abusive husband is killed by Crocker, which frees her from this marriage. The sympathies of Holmes and Watson lie with the killer in this case, so they let him go.

“The Abbey Grange” is a favourite Holmes story of mine. It uses the murder mystery form with great skill to illustrate the problems of marriage and divorce laws of the time The laws in most western countries have changed for the better, but the story still touches on concerns that are still relevant.

The Adventure of the Second Stain.

This story begins with Watson explaining that Holmes has retired from detective work and because he wishes no further public attention for himself, forbids Watson from publishing more stories of their cases. It is like The Final Problem, a way for Doyle to get out of writing more Holmes stories, this time with a more happy ending to the career of the great detective. He didn’t stick to this resolution, of course, but it brought an end to “The Return of Sherlock Holmes” series.

And to end the series with a grand finale, we get Holmes’s most important case. As Watson puts it: “it is only appropriate that this long series of episodes should culminate in the most important international case which he has ever been called upon to handle, “

The canon is full of off-hand mentions by Watson of Holmes’s cases that he had yet to publish, but “The Second Stain” is the only such reference to an unpublished case to actually be turned into a story by Doyle. The reference was in “The Naval Treaty”, and this story is quite similar to that.

Just like the earlier story, “The Second Stain” involves the theft of a very important political document, which contains such sensitive information that its reveal will endanger Britain’s status on the world stage. This time, the stakes are even higher, as such a reveal might lead to war. And once again, the solution is that the theft was made by a family member and the story of international political intrigue is revealed to have quite personal origins. There is even a similar hiding place for the document in a floor.

But the story has enough differences to feel like its own thing, and the sympathetic motivations of the thief in this case are quite different from those of the villain of “The Naval treaty”. These motivations also grounds what could otherwise been a story about international politics in ordinary human emotions. Ultimately, “The Second Stain” works well as a mystery story.

The Adventure of the Wisteria Lodge

This is decent, if ultimately weak story. The backstory here, about an assassination attempt on a former Central American dictator is remarkable, as is Inspector Baynes, the only police detective to ever match Holmes. The story is marred by the very racist depiction of a voodoo worshipping mixed-race cook.

It also has one of the more glaring and amusing errors in dating, as it is set in 1892, when Holmes was thought dead by Watson and the rest of the world.

The Adventure of the Bruce Partington Plans

Another mystery on the stolen government documents theme like “The Naval Treaty” and “The Second Stain”. And again one of the culprits is a family member of one of the guardians of this document. But “The Bruce-Partington Plans” has some original elements, which distinguish from its predecessors.

While the previous stories were bloodless, there is an interesting murder mystery here, with an elegant and unexpected solution. There is more of a tie to international espionage, with a foreign spy being an unseen eminence. It is an exciting, fun story, where the international political intrigue feels like it has more weight, without the story feeling inhuman. Again, one of my favourites.

This story features the return of Mycroft, but this time his role in British government is retconned. Holmes explains that Mycroft doesn’t have a mere “small office in the British government”, but “occasionally he is the British Government…. The conclusions of every department are passed to him, and he is the central exchange, the clearing-house, which makes out the balance. “

Holmes explains why he didn’t tell Watson this earlier by “"I did not know you quite so well in those days. One has to be discreet when one talks of high matters of state.“

I like this version of Mycroft, the very idea of him is interesting. A man who appears to be a simple civil servant, yet upon whose great intelligence the British governments relies upon, “the most indispensable man in the country."

It gives more of a purpose to “the tidiest and most orderly brain, with the greatest capacity for storing facts, of any man living.“, than the original story where he only “audits the books in some of the government departments.“ Mycroft doesn’t appear after this story, but this version gives such opportunities for interesting stories that he is often used in adaptations and pastiches/fan fiction

The Adventure of the Devil’s Foot

This is a very good story, with a creepy murder mystery and solution. One of my favourites. The story builds a strong sense of dread, from the macabre discoveries of the victims to the genuinely horrific scene where Holmes and Watson test the mysterious poison.

The Adventure of the Red Circle

An okay story, but not outstanding. The mystery of the lodger is decent, but the resolution and solution is unsatisfying. Holmes and Watson don’t really affect the plot: Gennaro kills the villain himself, and Inspector Gregson was on his way to uncover the villain’s body when he runs into Holmes and Watson. Holmes only helped uncover the truth. This wouldn’t be so much of a problem, if the solution they uncovered was more satisfying, but it isn’t. The Red Circle are bad villains. We never seem them act directly in the story. The story is also vague on what their deal is, they seem to be a weird amalgamation of left-wing radicals and the mafia (this is one of the more reactionary Holmes stories). And the motivation of the villain Gorgiano is ultimately personal, so that their inclusion in this story seems unnecessary.

The Disappearance of Lady Frances Carfax

A decent story. Watson leading the investigation on his own for the first part of the story is fun. But the later criticism from Holmes seems unnecessarily cruel. The mystery of the lady hidden in the coffin is interesting though.

The Adventure of the Dying Detective.

I really like this story. The story revolves around the performance of Holmes, pretending to be fatally ill and raving about oysters taking over the world, and it is a strong scene. The Holmes-Watson interactions here are enjoyable and quite touching. And the villain, Culverton Smith, with his poisoned box-trap is memorable.

The Valley of Fear

This, the fourth and final Holmes novel, is like the first, A Study in Scarlet, a novel of two parts.

The first is a murder mystery, and a very good one. The strange murder, and the environment and its inhabitants are intriguing, and the solution is satisfying and clever. Even the smaller mystery of the coded message at the beginning is fun. This first part alone makes the book worth reading.

And just like A Study in Scarlet, the second part is the backstory to the case. It is actually quite similar to that first novel in other ways too: it is the melodramatic story of a hero struggling against an evil organization that terrorizes a community in America, trying to save his girlfriend from being forced into marriage with one of their members, and the result is a story of revenge that culminates in the case that Holmes investigates in the first half.

It suffers from the same problems. It is too long, and the third-person perspective makes for a jarring contrast to the warm narrative voice of Watson. It doesn’t make sense for it to be in third-person either, considering it is a statement from a particular person who was involved. It isn’t a chore to read due Doyle’s strong storytelling skills, but it feels strange to be removed from Holmes and Watson for so long.

It is also similar to the “Red Circle”, about a criminal mafia-like society, with vague claims to being politically radical, who chase a good man who was once a member but betrayed their criminal ways and his wife across the Atlantic, complete with the organization’s representative having a personal stake (due to desiring the hero’s wife) in the attempted murder, but ending up killed himself. It is better than the Red Circle, for at least the long backstory gives the organization a more defined shape.

The problems with the second part of the book lie elsewhere, and have already been explained, but there is certainly a politically reactionary tinge to this book. The villains are, or pretend to be, a socialist labour union, who use class conflict rhetoric to justify their violence. The hero is a Pinkerton agent too.

Interesting is the involvement of Moriarty as the shadowy figure behind the crime. It must be set before the Final Problem as Moriaty is still alive in this novel, but that creates an obvious contradiction. In “The Final Problem” Watson has never heard of Moriarty, but here he knows about him.

But I enjoy his involvement here, as shadowy and remote a figure as he is here. It makes Moriarty into a better adversary for Holmes than he originally was. This story actually depicts what Holmes hunting for Moriarty looked like, instead of him just talking about doing it like in the original story.

His Last Bow

Set in August 1914, on the very eve of the war, it tells of how Holmes comes out of his Sussex retirement to engage in counter-espionage against the germans.

It is a war propaganda story, written in 1917. So it naturally has a very negative depiction of the germans. Although its suggestion that the Irish revolts and suffragetes (“window-breaking furies”) is not only reactionary, but absurd even by the standards of war propaganda.

It isn’t really a mystery story, but a spy one. It is decent at that, though Holmes’s gambit here isn’t that exciting: he simply became a double agent by disguising himself. And to not spoil the reveal of “Altamont” actually being Holmes, it is written in third-person, which is never congenial for a Holme story.

What really makes this story memorable is of course that this is the chronologically last Holmes story. It wasn’t the last written, but this is Holmes and Watson’s final adventure. This gives this spy story a mythic quality. And despite the oddness, it has some nice writing that gives a valedictory and elegiac mood to the affair. Holmes’s final dialogue with Watson is especially strong.

The Case-Book of Sherlock Holmes

The Adventure of the Mazarin Stone

This is one of the weakest stories in the canon. It is adapted from a play, the story of which apparently barely involved Watson, so it is written in the third-person, and the lack of Watson’s narrative voice hurts it. The theatrical elements are blatant, all of it takes place in 221B. The story revolves around a trick of Holmes, which is very unbelievable, and also re-uses a plot point from The Empty House.

The Problem of Thor Bridge

Just a solid and very enjoyable murder mystery, with an unexpected solution. My favourite in the Case-Book. Watson’s introduction, mentioning a despatch box in a bank containing records of Holmes’s cases, and referencing a few untold ones, is one of the most important additions to the Holmes mythos.

The Adventure of the Creeping Man

This is probably one of the more improbable stories in the canon, as it veers into science fiction. It is a Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde inspired story of a scientist taking a serum extracted from a monkey to make himself younger, but it having the side-effect of making him act like the monkey. It is a strange story, but actually not that bad, if you are able to accept the science fiction premise it is a decent story of that type.

The Adventure of the Sussex Vampire

The premise here is strange too, about a woman accused of vampirism, but it turns out to be a decent mystery story, with a solution involving family drama instead of the supernatural.

The Adventure of the Three Garridebs

A re-use of the plot of The Red-headed League, not bad, but definitely inferior to the original. Mostly remarkable for a scene where Watson gets shot and the resulting effect on Holmes, who shows emotions of fear, concern and anger in a much stronger degree than ever before.

The Adventure of the Illustrious Client

A good story. It re-uses elements from “Charles Augustus Milverton”: the villain who is unreachable by the law, and so Holmes has to do a burglary, but the villain is attacked by a woman he wronged, who takes her own intiative. But the story has enough differences that I don’t mind. Instead of a blackmailer, it is about preventing a woman who has been tricked and fallen in love with a villain from marrying him. And the wronged woman, Kitty Winters, is very memorable. She is a strong and active character, and given much more characterization than the anonymous murderer in “Milverton”. And of course, there is the question of who “The Illustrious Client” is, and a popular fandom theory is that it was Edward VII (who was a Holmes fan in real life, which might have influenced his decision to give Doyle a knighthood).

The Adventure of the Three Gables.

A mediocre story, neither the mystery or solution are that exciting. The description of the villainess is memorable, but as she is ultimately shown to not be a formidable or intelligent a foe that it doesn’t matter much. It is made much worse by the racism present in the depiction of Stevie Dixon, including the use of the n-word.

The Adventure of the Blanched Soldier

The first of only two stories narrated by Holmes. The narrative voice he is given in these stories isn’t that convincing. It is just too similar to Watson and doesn’t seem like anything Holmes would write. And Doyle clearly knew this, as Holmes admits he is mimicking Watson’s style. Doyle’s technique of withholding information from the reader makes sense when Watson is narrating, but becomes more frustrating when Holmes for no good reason withholds what he does from the reader. Here the most glaring example is Holmes not saying what he writes on a note to the title character’s father.

The tale, with its tragic and dramatic story of friendship and illness, is decent otherwise

The Adventure of the Lion’s Mane

The second story narrated by Holmes, telling of how he solved a case during his retirement. Again, the voice isn’t convincing, and the withholding of information is perhaps even more frustrating this time around. At one point, Holmes says he searched for a book he owned and read it, but doesn’t explain what he searched for in the book or read in it.

It’s decent, but it is a bit disappointing how all the human drama the case uncovers is just a gigantic red herring. The solution being that a jellyfish did it is ok, the description of it and the pain of their victims is memorable. But it is also one of the most predictable solutions in the canon. It is very easy to figure out, if you know more about jellyfish than Holmes does.

The Adventure of the Retired Colourman.

Just a solid and good mystery story, with an unexpected solution. One of the strongest in the “Case-Book”.

The Adventure of the Veiled Lodger

Another story, where Watson admits it is not a mystery, just a woman telling a story to Holmes. And it is a very similar story to “The Abbey Grange”, with practically the same point. A woman is in an abusive marriage, so she plots to kill her husband with her love. The main difference is that she is betrayed by her lover and ends up horribly mutilated by a lion. It is essentially a remake of the earlier story, but weaker because there is no mystery for Holmes to solve. His only action here is to dissuade the woman from suicide.

It has one of the most amusing references to an unpublished story, however: “ the whole story concerning the politician, the lighthouse, and the trained cormorant”.

The Adventure of Shoscombe Old Place.

This final Holmes story is not a finale of any kind, but just an ordinary mystery. At least it is of a decent quality.