Very entertaining, good to see where all the legends come from. Very interesting attention to detail, how many authors have been influenced by these stories?

Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

When you think Sherlock Homles have had enough adventures in his pocket, Arthur Conan Doyle proves you wrong. I'm glad I've grabbed this book, for the stories it carried were of great interest, simplicity and complexity at the same time!

Sherlock Holmes had met every type of criminal there could be, from beggars to impersonators to the last descendant of one of the oldest Saxon families in England; There also had to be animals involved, snakes, cheetah and dogs! I always give it to Holmes for going through whatever it takes for justice to be served! Respect!

Everything was well-written, beautifully described and extraordinarily put together. (I always pay attention to the writing as it has an impact upon me, which helps in deciding whether I like this book or not) Definitely deserves a spot in my Favorite Mystery Novels! ❤️

Here's my personal rating for each chapter:

A Scandal In Bohemia ⭐⭐⭐⭐
The Red-Headed League ⭐⭐⭐⭐
A Case of Identity ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
The Boscombe Valley Mystery ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
The Five Orange Pips ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
The Man With The Twisted Lip ⭐⭐⭐⭐

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 Cropper Beeches ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes were the first Sherlock Holmes stories I ever read. I fell in love with the style and atmosphere of these stories, eight or so years ago, and never bothered to re-read until now. Having re-read, I see that there are key elements of the stories which slipped past my younger self.

For instance, the fact that - for his time - Arthur Conan Doyle wrote in ways that were a touch more shocking. To us, he may still seem very dated, his moral codes part of his era. Yet the fact that he even hints at and writes female characters with roles not always dependent upon marriage (that he has independent women characters) is important. Irene Addler and some of his other female characters are much stronger than the female characters written around the same kind of era - hence hinting to me that Doyle had a much more open and critical mind than many around him. But of course, how else could he have created some of the most compelling mystery plots of all? And how else could he have created such an analytical and rational detective?

Another issue that slipped past my younger self still are elements that appear to be dated. For instance the fact that assassins in one of the stories were the KKK (history has since changed their role for the worse). For another thing, that Holmes uses cocaine and also is seen in an opium den (whether he uses the drug is never clarified). Yet, I myself as a pre-teen, never realised that Holmes was using such drugs...

That all said, the mysteries presented inside these short stories remain compelling and intricate. Perhaps some are solved far too easily or conveniently, but the world of fog, tobacco smoke and violin playing which is so occupied by Sherlock Holmes and his faithful friend, John Watson, is one of fascination. For those characters alone you can read these stories, and for the artistic way in which Doyle - through Watson - depicts strange mysteries with some artistic prose.

So, after a more recent reading, I still recommend these stories. Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, out of any author I have read, seems to grasp logic better than anyone. Both mathematical/scientific logic and deductive logic are offered as valuable and rare, rarer than any crime committed by human characters. Which all goes to suggest that it is easier to commit atrocities, but harder to solve them.