Here, I will save you the time reading this:

"Hi, I'm Sherlock Holmes. I am sexist and conceited and enjoy deducing people's background by pointing out trivial things about them such as the color of their socks or the mud smears on their sleeves in order to make them think I'm amazing. Somehow, I have a great house in London, a plethora of nice suits and costumes, and fuel a cocaine addiction while working for free and turning down payment for all of my services. People come to me with problems that are obvious but that they apparently can't solve themselves. I listen to them and then disappear for a day to solve the crime in secret, repeatedly screwing over my so-called friend Watson. Once I have an answer, I pompously tell everyone (especially Watson) that they have no powers of observation and that, as always, I had the answer from the beginning. I don't try to get the criminal convicted though. It's all about the knowledge. Run free thieves and murderers. Pip pip cheerio!"

x's 12.

This was the first collection of Sherlock Holmes short stories that I read! I was quite surprised by how short each of the mysteries were, and how fast they flew by. But I did enjoy them. I loved seeing the deduction at work, and it was iconic finally reading about the duo. From the speech I could easily tell that the BBC casting for the series had been done so well. I felt like the endings were a bit too abrupt at times, and sometimes the stories felt quite short. I did like what characterisation I read, but I didn’t fall head over heels in love with either Holmes or Watson like I expected to. Loved the plots to the mysteries and the solving of them though!

This review and others can originally be found on Olivia's Catastrophe: https://oliviascatastrophe.com/2020/0...

This book is a collection of cases that sherlock n his hot bf(dr.watson) solve or try to solve, this was sooo much fun to read the stories were so interesting n it got me in a "I need to read every detective story ever" mood...HIGHLY recommend if u want some fun chill time n crack some cases.

• Escándalo en Bohemia 4/5⭐️
• La liga de los pelirrojos 4/5⭐️
• Un caso de identidad 3/5⭐️
• El misterio de Boscombe Valley 3/5⭐️
• Las cinco semillas de naranja 3/5⭐️
• El hombre del labio torcido 4/5⭐️
• La aventura del rubi azul 3/5⭐️
• La aventura de la banda de lunares 4/5⭐️
• El dedo pulgar del ingeniero 3/5
• El aristócrata solterón 3/5⭐️
• La aventura de la corona de esmeraldas verdemar 3/5⭐️
• La aventura de Copper Beeches 4/5⭐️

I enjoyed this a lot more than I thought I would. Reading this book was my first experience with Sherlock Holmes, but I discovered that there were so many elements to the stories that I was already familiar with (probably through other books, tv programs, films etc. that I’ve seen over the years and were inspired by Sherlock Holmes?). Anyway, it was fun!
I would rate this book with 4 out of 5 stars.

12 short stories published in 1892. My personal favorites are: A Scandal in Bohemia, The Red-Headed League, The Five Orange Pips, and The Adventures of the Speckled Band. Sherlock Holmes and his sidekick, Dr. Watson, are always fun to read.

I read this book many years ago and as it was recommended to me I wanted to read it again, I liked it very much and I like how Sherlock always repeats: "you see, but you do not observe"; infact most of the time it's what happens to many people.
Arthur Conan Doyle used to say: "The love of books is among the choicest gifts of the gods", it is absolutely true. If you are in company with a good book you are never alone and I am always with a book!!

June 2020
So this is a Group read for "English Mysteries", where we shall be reading all of the Conan Doyle Holmes short stories and Novels over the next 18 months finishing on Dartmoor for Christmas 2021.

Interestingly, I have to say the version I am now reading has 12 short stories compared to the 10 in 2018. I can only guess that different editions (and I have many) for different countries have different sets of stories.
For this re-read there will be 12, 12 is the number of stories, there shall be !!
So in order read:-
The Redheaded League 5⭐️
A wonderful example of Holmes capabilities. What is The Red Headed League and why does it want pawnbroker Mr Wilson to join their ranks.
A Case of Identity 4⭐️
Where has the intended of Miss Mary Sutherland disappeared to ? In fact why did he vanish on the way to their wedding ?
The Boscombe Valley Mystery 5⭐️
Who else but his son could have killed Mr Charles McCarthy, but if so, why did James not say what their argument had been about or why make up the story about his father saying "a rat" with his last breath
The Five Orange Pips 4⭐️
Who keeps sending members of the Openshaw family 5 Orange Pips. And what papers should be put on the sundial in the garden ?
The Man with the Twisted Lip 5⭐️
A wonderful story in which Holmes is for a while stumped, how could the beggar have killed the fit London businessman and disposed of his body out of the window into the Thames so quickly. And then a night of pipe smoking contemplation allows him to solve the crime.
The Adventure of the Blue Carbuncle 5⭐️
A fabulous story, demonstrating Holmes ability to delve into a problem and follow it to a conclusion. So who was the man who was attacked late one night as he staggered home with a goose. Peterson the commissioner, saw the man attacked and rescued his hat and goose. Holmes manages to discern a large amount of information about the gooses owner just from his hat much to Watson's amazement.
The Speckled Band 5⭐️
Probably one of the most famous short stories, and very atmospheric. Why did her twin die, and what is the whistling ?
The Adventure of the Engineer's Thumb 4.5⭐️
A story that focusses on an injury done to a hydraulic engineer who had been called out late at night to repair a hydraulic press. Offered an extortionate fee for his assistance it ends in him being taken to Dr Watson's surgery for treatment.
The Adventure of the Noble Bachelor 4.5⭐️
The upper crust Lord Robert St Simon calls on Holmes when his American (very rich) wife of just a few hours mysteriously disappears
The Adventure of the Beryl Coronet 5⭐️
Alexander Holder, co-owner of a private bank, arrives in a terrible state at 221B. His honour could be in shreds as he has taken a well known fabulously expensive bejewelled coronet in exchange for a monstrous loan of £50, 000. And then that night he catches his son with the coronet in his hands and jewels missing, ruination beckons.
The Adventure of the Copper Beeches
Why as a governess would you be offered 3 times your asked for salary, be asked to occasionally wear certain dresses, and asked to cut your hair short. Violet Hunter visits Sherlock to ask if she accept a job with those conditions. Sherlock says she should keep in touch if she accepts the position, but he would not let his sister accept that position if he had one.
A Scandal in Bohemia
So this is story 1 in the book but as part of the group read, I am reading it last in this anthology simply because although interesting, it is also reliant on people already knowing about Holmes. Needless to say it is all about That Woman . enough said.

February 2018 5 Stars
This was a personal re-read , (I'm guessing for the 4th or 5th time ) and it was as fabulous as ever.
It comprises 10 short stories :-
A scandal in Bohemia --
A case of identity --
The Boscombe Valley mystery --
The five orange pips --
The adventure of the blue carbuncle --
The adventure of the speckled band
The adventure of the engineer's thumb
The adventure of the noble bachelor
The adventure of the beryl coronet
The adventure of the copper beeches

These stories are all well written, with wonderful characterisations and great settings. As with Miss Marple or Poirot, I see a certain actor whenever I read a Sherlock Holmes book and that is Jeremy Brett. To me he is the epitome of Sherlock-ness.
In this collection we see Sherlock and Watson involved with royalty to beggars, from geese to snakes, from central London to the suburbs (when they were suburbs) to the South Wset, from bank robbers to murders to "The Woman".

If you've never read any Holmes, this is a great place to start and will give you an insight into his amazing abilities, his relationship with Watson and fantastic descriptions of Victorian London.

Gotta love the old-school dash!

Arthur Conan Doyle created such an intriguing vehicle for his mystery stories in the figure of Sherlock Holmes, a man almost inhuman, nearly robotic in his exacting speech and actions, so much so that the reader longs for and grasps on to the minute human aspects (a hint of carnal desire, for example) on the fleeting instances they appear.

In story after tightly wound story intelligence and rational thought wins the day. But before it gets all too academic, Conan Doyle throws in a bit of action, some good old fashioned horror or a grotesque morsel for the reader to chew on, for he realized man can not be sustained on thought alone.

Taken on their own, each short story in this collection would receive 3 or 4 stars, but put them together and you've got a 5 star body of work. A lone stick breaks easily, but bundled together the sticks form a strong bond. Case after solved case impresses with its almost overwhelming accumulation of ingenuity. The character of Holmes eventually develops with nuggets of personal detail and, on rare occasion, even a display of pathos.

It's generally accepted that Sir Arthur Conan Doyle was a much better short-story writer than he was a novelist, so it comes as no shock that The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, a collection of short stories involving the consulting detective, are a vast improvement over the previous two books.

n  "Women are naturally secretive, and they like to do their own secreting.n

A Scandal in Bohemia is a masterclass of a short story. In essence, Holmes is bested by a woman, Irene Adler, because he just can't escape his own woefully stereotypical views of women. Where a man can be defined by his social status, his personal habits and you know, by the rich tapestry of their humanity — woman is sufficiently explanatory of the opposite sex for Holmes.

Sherlock finally encounters a woman outside of the patriarchal roles assigned to them and is almost immediately humbled. Unfortunately, his takeaway isn't that, perhaps, women are as multifaceted as men, but that Adler herself is some kind of exceptional super-woman worthy of uncommon respect. A woman whose picture he'll paw at pathetically for decades to come. And for the Victorian recluse, that's a win.

n  "As far as you are personally concerned," remarked Holmes, "I do not see that you have any grievance against the extraordinary league. On the contrary, you are, I understand, richer by some thirty pounds, to say nothing of the minute knowledge which you have gained on every subject which comes under the letter A."n

Then there's The Red-Headed League, another banger. A man gets roped into a preposterously suspicious job due to him being a ginger, and is flabbergasted when the opportunity blows up in his face.

Watson and Holmes don't take him seriously for a minute, laugh in his face about his predicament, and its hilarious. Also, Watson ejaculates again, and Holmes does that irritating thing where he quotes something in a different language — which must have been especially irritating to readers at the time, sans Google.

A Case of Identity takes the What-the-Fuckery up to new, dangerously implausible heights. Disguises have always been like magic in the Sherlock Holmes universe. No amount of crack could explain the scene in The Sign of Four where Sherlock reveals himself to Watson by taking off his sailor wig and Watson, actually for-the-love-of-god, wonders where the sailor has gone?

So the story of a stepfather tricking his poorly-sighted stepdaughter that he's another man entirely — by only coming out in the evening, and wearing dark glasses, and murmuring throughout their courtship — is another hard sell, but its stupidity rebounds and becomes almost as funny as the last story. Especially as it ends with Holmes declaring, "Bitches be crazy," as to his reason for not revealing the truth to the stepdaughter.

The Boscombe Valley Mystery is a simple blackmail-turned-murder mystery that's main contribution is adding a fifth "ejaculation" to Watson's tally.

The Five Orange Pips deals with the KKK exacting revenge over their flagging organisation. Holmes solves the case but justice isn't served as the culprits are presumably lost at sea. The Man with the Twisted Lip: a man with a full-time job supplements his income by professional begging and accidentally stages his own murder.

The Blue Carbuncle stands out because at one point Holmes assumes a man's an intellectual because he has a big head. Annnd that his wife doesn't love him because his hat is dirty, which is obviously a loving wifely duty not to be undertaken by the man, himself, ever. Other than that, its a bonafide Christmas special.

The Speckled Band is another case of a stepfather trying to prevent his stepdaughters from marrying because of its impact on his finances. This time Holmes and Watson beat a snake alone in a dark room at night. Watson ejaculates again.

A personal favourite is The Engineers Thumb, which is the series first real foray into horror. Its genuinely scary and the ending gives no resolution to the killer. The poor engineers business is still failing, he's lost a thumb and gained significant trauma from the ordeal — but Holmes is quick to look on the bright side; it'll be a good story to tell at parties. Honestly, good point.

The Noble Bachelor is a boring runaway bride mystery that resolves with a shrug. The Beryl Coronet is forgettable. And, lastly, The Copper Beeches starts with a curious conversation between Holmes and Watson:

n  "Man, or at least criminal man, has lost all enterprise and originality. As to my own little practice, it seems to be degenerating into an agency for recovering lost lead pencils and giving advice to young ladies from boarding-schools."n

There are a few ways this sentiment can be interpreted, but I lean toward it being evidence of Doyle's own weariness for writing these mysteries and, perhaps, regurgitating common criticisms his stories have gotten. Other than that its another father-wants-to-keep-the-dowry story, and Watson shipping Holmes with Miss Hunter.

n  “It saved me from ennui,” he answered, yawning. “Alas! I already feel it closing in upon me. My life is spent in one long effort to escape from the commonplaces of existence. These little problems help me to do so.” n
- Sherlock Holmes

I am so glad to finally be done with this book that took me years to read. I would have DNFed it a long time ago because it just couldn't hold my attention and I had to force myself to finish it, but I absolutely love all the adaptations of Sherlock Holmes: from the RDJ movie, to the BBC Sherlock, to CBS's Elementary, I just had to know more about him and see where they get all their material from. Sadly, most of it is not from this book.

This consists of 12 short stories, and I have summarized stories 5-12 below.

[previous update: Slowly making my way through this collection. It’s taking me a long time because I’m just not a short story person, but I do love Sherlock Holmes.]

➸ “The Five Orange Pips”
n  I say now, as I said then, that a man should keep his little brain-attic stocked with all the furniture that he is likely to use, and the rest he can put away in the lumber-room of his library, where he can get it if he wants it.”n
This one’s about a man who comes to see Holmes on a dark and stormy night because he’s received a letter with the initials “K. K. K.” It has him worried because his uncle had received the same letter and then died seven weeks later. Then his dad received the letter and died a few days later. To me, the events in this just happened too quickly and I don’t think there’s any way a modern reader could have concluded the actual solution to the story, and I was also confused as to why everything happened.

➸"The Man with the Twisted Lip"
n  “I think, Watson, that you are now standing in the presence of one of the most absolute fools in Europe. I deserve to be kicked from here to Charing Cross."n
- Sherlock Holmes, when he solves the crime
This story starts when a friend of Watson's wife arrives, panicked, that her husband has been missing for two days and is probably in an opium den. Watson offers to go pick him up from there and send him home in a cab. On his way out, he hears an old man telling him to take a few steps, then turn around and look at him, and that's where the fun begins. I don't want to spoil anything but that scene had me laughing out loud. And also, this is one story where I was able to kind of figure out the ending! And the end had me laughing too.

Also, this is the first short story I noticed where Watson's first name is mentioned to be James rather than John.

➸"The Adventure of the Blue Carbuncle"
n  “I can see nothing,” said I, handing it back to my friend.

“On the contrary, Watson, you can see everything. You fail, however, to reason from what you see. You are too timid in drawing your inferences.”n

This story takes place two days after Christmas, and it begins with Sherlock pondering over a hat and a goose that commissionaire Peterson had been left on the street after there was a small fight. He brings it to Holmes to find out who the owner is, and Holmes later sees that the goose had a blue carbuncle hidden inside it. The mystery is who put it there and why. I just wasn't as interested in this story as some of the others. Also, some of the conclusions Holmes draws, I have come to notice, are just a little far-fetched. Like he "deduces" that because a hat is big, the guy must have a big brain and is therefore intellectual? Nope, not true.

But this one is a true gem: n  "Just see how it glints and sparkles. Of course it is a nucleus and focus of crime. Every good stone is. They are the devil’s pet baits. In the larger and older jewels every facet may stand for a bloody deed."n

➸ “The Adventure of the Speckled Band"
n  When a doctor does go wrong he is the first of criminals. He has nerve and he has knowledge. Palmer and Pritchard were among the heads of their profession. This man strikes even deeper, but I think, Watson, that we shall be able to strike deeper still. But we shall have horrors enough before the night is over.n

This story takes place in April 1883 when Watson was still living as a bachelor with Holmes at Baker Street. But Watson recalls this story several years later because he wasn't at liberty to share the details earlier until the woman passes away (but it never becomes clear why he couldn't share the story before). Anyway, one day a 32 year old woman comes in and tells a story about her stepfather who is from one of the richest families in England, although by now they have lost most of their wealth. He had left for India where he practiced medicine, but one day was set off and killed his butler due to a robbery in his house. He was imprisoned and when he got out, came back to England. All was well until at the age of 30, her twin sister announced she was engaged and two weeks later ended up dead. Just from this little summary, it's not hard at all to figure out who did it or even why (the girls' mother had left them an inheritance they could have upon getting married). I guess the mystery is HOW because she died in the middle of the night in a locked room after hearing some strange whistling that her sister in the next room could not hear. Now her sister is engaged and has heard the same whistling sound and is scared, which is how she ended up at Sherlock's doorstep.

This story just went on a little too long for me, and I wasn't really invested until the very last part, when I was hoping there would be some kind of plot twist and maybe the most obvious suspect would turn out to not be the perpetrator, but sadly, that never happened. I think I need to take a break from these short stories.

➸ “The Adventure of the Engineer's Thumb”
n  “Well,” said our engineer ruefully as we took our seats to return once more to London, “it has been a pretty business for me! I have lost my thumb and I have lost a fifty-guinea fee, and what have I gained?”

“Experience,” said Holmes, laughing. “Indirectly it may be of value, you know; you have only to put it into words to gain the reputation of being excellent company for the remainder of your existence.” n

Takes place in the summer of '89, shortly after Watson's marriage. But he's recounting this a couple of years later. Watson had returned to practicing medicine and was no longer living with Holmes. A hydraulic engineer shows at Watson's doorstep, and Watson discovers that his thumb has recently been cut off. Then the engineer recounts a long-winded story about how he was hired to help someone repair their system to discover some type of something (metal?) that is as valuable as gold, and that he would be paid handsomely. But this person ("Colonel Lysander Stark") makes sure that he has chosen someone who is a bachelor and orphan with no ties to anyone else. He says it's because he wants this mission kept secret so the neighbors don't discover it, but really, that should have been a huge red flag. That's exactly how the Craiglist Killer chose his victims as well. But anyway, this engineer agrees to meet this random man at his house at midnight to help, and when he gets there, he meets a strange woman who tries to warn him away, but of course he doesn't listen. And that's when things go very wrong.

Sherlock Holmes was only in this story for a few minutes. The majority of it was just the engineer's tale, and then we don't even get to see Sherlock's deduction process. He just gives us the conclusion and that's it. I would give this story like a 0 or 1 star. Stories like this are the reason why it has taken me years to try and finish this book.

➸ "The Adventure of the Noble Bachelor"
n  It is always a joy to meet an American, Mr. Moulton, for I am one of those who believe that the folly of a monarch and the blundering of a minister in far-gone years will not prevent our children from being some day citizens of the same world-wide country under a flag which shall be a quartering of the Union Jack with the Stars and Stripes.” n

This one is about a man who gets married only for his wife to disappear a few hours later. And Sherlock is able to figure it out before he ever even meets this man, just from Watson reading the newspaper article about it to him. I did enjoy it more than the previous one.

n  "Draw your chair up and hand me my violin, for the only problem we have still to solve is how to while away these bleak autumnal evenings."n
- In which I, too, am Sherlock Holmes (we both get bored so easily, ugh)

➸ “The Adventure of the Beryl Coronet"
n  “It is an old maxim of mine that when you have excluded the impossible, whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth."n

This one is about a banker who lends £50,000 to an English noble, and as collateral, receives a beryl coronet that is worth at least twice as much. He keeps it in a safe at his house but makes the mistake of telling the whole household about it. Of course, someone tries to steal it, and he think it's his son who has some gambling debt, but his son won't say a word about the matter, so he calls Sherlock in to investigate.

This story too had a hard time of keeping my attention. The most interesting part of it, to me, was that I learned that beryl is a real word. Previously I had heard of it only from Sailor Moon (Queen Beryl).

➸ “The Adventure of the Copper Beeches"
n  “To the man who loves art for its own sake,” remarked Sherlock Holmes, “it is frequently in its least important and lowliest manifestations that the keenest pleasure is to be derived. It is pleasant to me to observe, Watson, that you have so far grasped this truth that in these little records of our cases which you have been good enough to draw up, and, I am bound to say, occasionally to embellish, you have given prominence not so much to the many causes célèbresand sensational trials in which I have figured but rather to those incidents which may have been trivial in themselves, but which have given room for those faculties of deduction and of logical synthesis which I have made my special province.”n
- Sherlock lecturing Watson on his literary shortcomings. n  “If I claim full justice for my art, it is because it is an impersonal thing—a thing beyond myself. Crime is common. Logic is rare. Therefore it is upon the logic rather than upon the crime that you should dwell. You have degraded what should have been a course of lectures into a series of tales.”n

This final tale is about a woman who comes to Holmes asking about a job that seems too good to be true: a man has offered to pay her £100 a month (or year?) to come be a governess at his house for his 6 year old. Her previous job as a governess only paid £4 a month, so naturally, she was a little wary of what all the job might entail. He tells her he wants her to help around the house a little, and that his wife is particular and wants things a certain way: she needs to cut her hair, wear the dress she is given, and so on. Sounds strange, and if this book wasn't written in the 19th century, you'd really think this would take a really different direction than it does. I won't say anymore, but this was a real page-turner, but the ending turned out to be rather common and something that had been used in this book before.

Now the reason I was interested in reading more about Sherlock is because I wanted to learn more about how his brain works, and where the tv and movie writers who adapt these stories get his character from, and scenes like this really enlightened me: "Holmes was settling down to one of those all-night chemical researches which he frequently indulged in, when I would leave him stooping over a retort and a test-tube at night and find him in the same position when I came down to breakfast in the morning." Now I can kind of see where the tv and movie writers of Holmes get their material from.

And I'll end with some more insight from Sherlock:
n  “Do you know, Watson,” said he, “that it is one of the curses of a mind with a turn like mine that I must look at everything with reference to my own special subject. You look at these scattered houses, and you are impressed by their beauty. I look at them, and the only thought which comes to me is a feeling of their isolation and of the impunity with which crime may be committed there.

“They always fill me with a certain horror. It is my belief, Watson, founded upon my experience, that the lowest and vilest alleys in London do not present a more dreadful record of sin than does the smiling and beautiful countryside.

“But the reason is very obvious. The pressure of public opinion can do in the town what the law cannot accomplish. There is no lane so vile that the scream of a tortured child, or the thud of a drunkard’s blow, does not beget sympathy and indignation among the neighbours, and then the whole machinery of justice is ever so close that a word of complaint can set it going, and there is but a step between the crime and the dock. But look at these lonely houses, each in its own fields, filled for the most part with poor ignorant folk who know little of the law. Think of the deeds of hellish cruelty, the hidden wickedness which may go on, year in, year out, in such places, and none the wiser. Had this lady who appeals to us for help gone to live in Winchester, I should never have had a fear for her. It is the five miles of country which makes the danger."n

If you made it this far, check out my blog for more reviews: The Bookish Expedition and also check out my bookstagram: instagram.com/moonspree

n  n   

"Tan acostumbrado estaba yo a sus invariables éxitos que ni se me pasaba por la cabeza la posibilidad de que fracasara"

n  n





Me gustaron algunas más que otras, pero lo que más me llamó la atención a leer cada historia fue el carácter de Sherlock, que al ser misterios cortos y que por ahí no generaban problemas para resolver, su personalidad e inteligencia es lo que más destaca.

Escándalo en Bohemia 5/5

n  "Para como un carácter como el suyo, una emoción fuerte resultaba tan perturbadora como la presencia de arena en un instrumento de precisión o la rotura de una de sus potentes lupas. Y sin embargo, existió para él una mujer, y esta mujer fue la difunta Irene Adler, de dudoso y cuestionable recuerdo"n

La liga de los pelirrojos: 3.5/5

n  "Si queremos efectos extraños y combinaciones extraordinarias, debemos buscarlos en la vida misma, que siempre llega mucho más lejos que cualquier esfuerzo de la imaginación"n

Un caso de identidad: 3/5

n  "Querido amigo. La vida es infinitamente más extraña que cualquier cosa que pueda inventar la mente humana. No nos atreveríamos a imaginar ciertas cosas que en realidad son de lo más corriente. Si puediéramos salir volando por esa ventana, cogidos de la mano, sobrevolar esta gran ciudad, levantar con cuidado los tejados y espiar todas las cosas raras que pasan, las extrañas coincidencias, las intrigas, los engaños, los prodigiosos encadenamientos de circunstancias que se extienden de generación en generación y acaban conduciendo a los resultados más extravagantes, nos parecía que las historias de ficción, con sus convencionalismos y sus conclusiones sabidas de antemano, son algo trasnochado e insípido"n

El misterio de Boscombe Valley: 3.5/5

n  "Las pruebas circunstanciales son muy engañosas. Puede parecer que indican claramente una cosa, pero si cambias un poquito tu punto de vista, puedes encontrarte con que indican, con igual claridad, algo completamente diferente"n

Las cinco semillas de naranja: 3.5/5

n  -He venido en busca de consejo.
-Eso se consigue fácilmente.
-Y de ayuda.
-Eso no siempre es tan fácil.n

El hombre del labio retorcido: 4/5

El carbunclo azul: 4/5

La banda de lunares: 4.5/5

n  "Vivimos en un mundo malvado, y cuando un hombre inteligente dedica su talento al crimen, se vuelve aún peor"n

El dedo pulgar del ingeniero: 5/5

n  "Experiencia. En cierto modo, puede resultarle muy valiosa. No tiene más que ponerla en forma de palabras para ganarse una reputación de persona interesante para el resto de su vida"n

El aristócrata solterón: 4/5

La corona de berilos: 3.5/5

n  "Su silencio me parece un arma de dos filos"n

El misterio de Copper Beeches: 4.5/5

n  "El hombre que ama el arte por el arte suele encontrar los placeres más intensos en sus manifestaciones más humildes y menos importantes"n

n  n    "Ya sabe usted, Watson, que una de las maldiciones de una mente como la mía es que tengo que mirarlo todo desde el punto de vista de mi especialidad. Usted mira esas casas dispersas y se siente impresionado por su belleza. Yo las miro, y el único pensamiento que me viene a la cabeza es lo aisladas que están, y la impunidad con que puede cometerse un crimen en ellas"n  n

n  n    2015 Reading Challenge:n  n