The Complete Sherlock Holmes: Volume II

A well written book. Enjoyed reading it.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=td2Zjd... Preview Sherlock Holmes 2 Downey-Law film.
http://annetoronto1.blogspot.ca/2013/... #2 Review
http://aneyespy.blogspot.ca/2011/12/s... #1 Review
http://aneyespy.blogspot.ca/2011/12/d... Cumberbatch-Freeman Review
This humorous, dangerous, very British 2010 BBC UK version updated with internet and mobile phones revived my interest in Doyle's classic Victorian murder mysteries promoting early forensics and deductive solutions. Surprisingly, old and new Watson (Freeman) are both injured veterans of Kandahar, Afghanistan. The city of London is still an old character. Cumberbatch has a lighter, less swoopy tadara interpretation than Jeremy Brett, and not caught in explosions like Downey. Study in Pink is loosely based on Study in Scarlet  having a choice of pills, placebo or poison, and a hack-cab driver hiding in plain sight.

1930 Doubleday Vol 1 has Study in Scarlet, Sign of Four, and 23 short stories in 480 pages. Preface assures us that some cases referenced were never published.

With a toothbrush and gun, meticulous research, observation, and deduction, we learn how to solve puzzles, and chase evil across Victorian London and world. I recall many cases, yet enjoy reruns. (Because quotation marks glitch in Goodreads, I start each summary with the case title.)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Canon_of...

Capsules (try to) remind me without giving away full answer.

p15 Study in Scarlet 1887 trails minatory bloody thread to American Western, Mormon Avenging Angels based in fact and folklore.
p87 In Sign of the Four 1890, Watson falls for Mary, recipient of fine pearls from a guilty Bombay valetudinarian who knows how her father vanished years ago in a conspiracy of four thieves.

Adventures (first pub 1891-2)
In p161 Bohemia, their king asks Sherlock to retrieve incriminating evidence from the beauty Irene Adler, his equal at ingenuity and intellect (changed onscreen).
p176 Red-headed foolish pawnbroker gives his new assistant free run of the basement.
p190 Identity remains hidden, when Holmes decides the prosperous sheltered daughter would not believe where her suitor vanished on the verge of their wedding.
p202 Also for Boscombe Valley, he hides the confession, to protect a couple - the father who made his fortune in Australia supports the other, now murdered.
p217 Five Orange Pips warn of KKK assassins who slip the noose.
p229 Twisted Lip is professional beggar, last to see a missing husband.
p244 Blue Carbuncle is jewel hidden in Season of Forgiveness goose, tracked to thief.
p257 Speckled Band are the last words of latest family female to succumb, leave wealth to step-father Doctor from India.
p273 Engineer's Thumb is severed fleeing from repairs for a secretive German.
p287 Noble Bachelor seeks rich American goldfield bride who vanished just after ceremony.
p301 Beryl Coronet taken home by a banker lost stones after being twisted and broken by his gambler son, who loves vanished ward.
p316 Copper Beeches is estate where newly hired governess suspects nefarious employers who ask her to cut her hair, sit so, wearing such, for extravagant wages.

Memoirs 1892-3
p335 Silver Blaze, missing winner racehorse when "the dog did nothing in the night-time", and the trainer was killed.
p350 Yellow Face mask in the window is an innocent, not a blackmailer of remarried Atlanta widow.
p362 The Stockbrocker's Clerk was hired away before he started.
p373 Gloria Scott, his first case, was an Australia-bound convict ship, the loss explained by posthumous record from his college friend's father.
p386 Musgrave Ritual was a family rhyme leading to treasure found and lost by a learned butler.
p398 In Reigate, a manservant is shot apparently preventing a second neighborhood burglary.
p411 Crooked Man from India reveals end of career soldier and role of too pretty wife.
p422 "Resident Patient" Blessington funds doctor's startup, hanged when protection fails.
p435 Greek Interpreter is abducted to strange house with tortured victim and surprised girl (introduces brother Mycroft at Diogenes Club where talking is forbidden, unlike onscreen).
p447 Naval Treaty needs recovering after accused thief recovers.
p469 The Final Problem is the fatal confrontation with arch-evil Professor Moriarty.

http://www.sorbie.net/old_occupations...

Very poorly edited but, you know, every now and then ya just gotta go back to reread a masterpiece!

I'd never noticed before that Conan Doyle wrote in his very first Holmes story that Watson's "Jezail bullet" from Afghanistan was lodged near the subclavian artery--in his SHOULDER. Throughout the rest of his stories about Sherlock (and yes, in my mind he will now forever look like Benedict Cumberbatch), that bullet remains firmly lodged--in Watson's LEG. Too funny! Even the immortals prove human.

5 stars, of course, but for the editing.

“There’s an East wind coming, Watson” That’s exactly how I felt when the book was down to 50 pages. I didn’t want it to end.

“Good old Watson! You are the one fixed point in a changing age." That’s how I feel about Sherlock Holmes. A friend was upset with me for not reading these stories despite being an avid reader.

Do you know why I don’t complete things I like? Because I don’t want them to end. It is understandable if my favourite contemporary writers can reach out to me through their books, considering we are in the same time period.

But how can an author writing long before I was born speak through time to me and make me feel the way I do?

I wish he wrote more. I wish he were alive today.

“It will be cold and bitter. Watson, a good many of us may wither before its blast. But it’s God’s own wind none the less,and a cleaner, better, stronger land will lie in sunshine when the storm cleared” Of course, he’s talking about WWI but it also feels like he’s talking about time to me. That one thing which will consume great, good and bad without any difference and leave their precious remains long after they cease to be a living part of this world

"I am a brain, Watson. The rest of me is a mere appendix"

Reading the complete Sherlock Holmes canon by Arthur Conan Doyle in these two volumes has been a remarkably rewarding experience. I'm truly sorry to be finished with these stories and novels (although I know from past experience that they reward rereading). In this reading I've gained an even clearer appreciation for the links between Holmes and the traditions of Gothic and science fiction literature, and I've certainly enhanced my enjoyment of the BBC's brilliant new Sherlock series. These are wonderfully crafted tales with truly compelling main characters (not to mention one of the greatest bromances of all time). Most of all, I'm reminded of Nicholas Meyer's words: "The message of Sherlock Holmes is simple," he says. "Life can be understood." My world is a better place for spending time at 221B Baker Street, and I plan to return repeatedly and often.

Read all of these as a young lad and now in my 50's, went back to an audiobook to listen to every single case on my long commute to work. Sir Arthur to this day is such a great writer and a genius in setting up and solving each crime, no wonder Mr. Holmes is still so relevant today. Special props to the narrator of these audiobooks, they were a true pleasure to listen to. Have a long commute? Then give Mr. Holmes a chance to met away the miles.

I've watched multiple televised series on the BBC as well as movies Hollywood films directed by Guy Ritchie, all are engrossingly, captivating.
The thrill of the hunt, continues!