The ninth and final volume of the Sherlock Holmes canon is once again a collection of short stories; the fifth collection. Although some of the stories are actually really good, by this stage Sir Arthur Conan Doyle has become formulaic in his approach and there is a distinct much-of-a-muchness about the stories; which is a shame. The short story that gave the previous collection its title – His Last Bow – is the last of all the stories in terms of chronology and would have made a fitting finale to the phenomenon that is Sherlock Holmes. (Conan Doyle recognises that this must be the end in the preface to this collection by begging the Sherlockians to allow him to let his creation fade away!) Although there are some great short stories in the later volumes, they tend to be concentrated in the earlier volumes, and the four novels are even better still.

Wow, zawsze czuję się dziwnie, kiedy dzwonią do siebie TELEFONAMI ☎️

A Rather Clever Collection
7 July 2017 (Great Australian Bight)

tWell, that was annoying. I had finished writing my review of the Case-book last night while I was sitting on the plane, saved it to my external harddrive, packed up my bag and then headed off to my parent's house. When I got there I suddenly discovered that my external harddrive was missing. Fortunately I had backed the harddrive up on my desktop at home, however I hope that the harddrive basically disappears as opposed to ending up in the hands of some Nigerian Prince.

tWhat it also means is that I pretty much have to write this review again from scratch, and attempt to remember what it was that I said in the previous review. Oh well, that probably isn't as much of a problem as it could have been, though I do hope that the hard drive vanishes for good (that would be the better outcome). So, here I am, sitting once again on a plane flying at 30,000 feet over the Great Australian Bight heading to what is probably one of the, if not the, most remote cities in the entire world – Perth – namely because I've never actually been to Perth, and also because I watch to go and watch my football team lose (which is most likely what is going to happen because the away teams do tend to lose in Perth).

tAnyway, enough of that because you probably want to know more about this book as opposed to my current location and my immediate plans, so I guess on with the review. Personally, I found this book somewhat more enjoyable than some of the other Holmsian collections, in particular the previous two. It felt as if Doyle had gone back to his original style as opposed to just a collection of murder mysteries – these stories seem to be more like puzzles than anything else. Sure, there were a couple of murders, but just because somebody died doesn't necessarily mean that they were killed by another human being.

tThe collection itself was interesting, and did seem to work more like a guessing game, though of course, as with Doyle's other works, it generally turns out that there is something that Holmes knows that he isn't letting on so it isn't necessarily possible to actually work out the solution to the puzzle. However, we do have some quite interesting stories, such as the one where an American with a rather odd name appears and claims that if he can find two other people with the same last name that he has then they would all inherit a rather expensive piece of property. This story actually reminded me a lot of the Redheaded League, which I also found to be quite clever. This is the thing that I enjoy about some of Doyle's stories – they don't necessarily involve solving a murder.

tWith some of the other stories, you have this puzzle regarding a professor, wearing a trench coat and covered in some nasty bruises, dying all of the sudden. You also have an adventure where Holmes is asked to basically stop this woman from marrying what appears to be a rather suspicious character, though this particular character is actually quite well connected. The problem is that she is only one of a long list of partners who all end up in a rather sticky position. Also, conving somebody not to marry somebody with whom they are smitten with is a challenge in and of itself. Once again, we don't have a murder, and we even have poor Holmes being arrested, though the charges basically don't end up sticking.

tLike the previous collection, these stories aren't in chronological order, and one of them isn't even written by Watson (it is narrated by Holmes). As we remember from Volume 3, Holmes retired to tend bees, so what we are seeing now are casefiles that were closed, but for some reason or another kept hidden (or simply may not have been interesting enough to publish with the previous collections). Some of the stories occur after Holmes retires, some of them before. In fact it is even suggested that a couple are set after World War I (remember that Holmes' last case involved busting open a German spy ring).

tSo, I can now add the entire Sherlock Holmes stories to my have-read list, though a part of me is a bit sad that it has now come to an end and the books returned to my father. However, maybe, someday in the future, I'll crack open the case books again simply to revisit the stories, particularly stories that I quite enjoyed. Oh, and before I forget, I should mention that in one of the stories we even meet Holmes' rival – not nemesis as in the case of Doctor Moriatry, but rather another consulting detective who proves to be just as capable as Sherlock Holmes.

*WARNING: VERY, VERY LONG!*
Don't read this if:
1.tYou have not read the book yet
2.tYou have no sense of humour
“The Case Book of Sherlock Holmes“ is the final collection of Sherlock Holmes stories written by Arthur Conan Doyle.
The collection I have has 10 stories:
1.t"The Adventure of the Illustrious Client"
2.t"The Adventure of the Blanched Soldier"
3.t"The Adventure of the Mazarin Stone"
4.t"The Adventure of the Three Gables"
5.t"The Adventure of the Sussex Vampire"
6.t"The Adventure of the Creeping Man"
7.t"The Adventure of the Lion's Mane"
8.t"The Adventure of the Veiled Lodger"
9.t"The Adventure of Shoscombe Old Place"
10.t"The Adventure of the Retired Colourman"


1. The Adventure of the Illustrious Client
This story is set in September 1902 and is narrated by Doctor Watson. This is a case from the latter years of Sherlock's career.
The case: Sherlock Holmes receives a letter from Sir James Damery who asks him to help stop the marriage between Baron Gruner and Violet de Merville. Baron Gruner's wife supposedly died in an accident, but it's suspected that the Baron killed her. Sherlock and Doctor meet Miss Kitty Winter who decides to help them convince Violet that Baron is a dangerous man. She admits she was his last mistress. He used her and ruined her and now she wants revenge. Miss Winter tells them about Baron's book with a lock which contains list of women he used. (Does this remind anyone of Cruel Intentions? :D )
He takes the case but soon is beaten by Gruner's henchmen, so Doctor Watson is sent to the Baron disguised as a collector to get some information out of him. However, the Baron realises he's a spy. Luckily, Sherlock appears and Gruner goes after him in rage.
When he tries to exit his house, a woman appears and attacks him with something and the Baron ends up screaming with his face burned and mutilated.
Sherlock later reveals he stole the diary while the doctor was talking to Gruner. Soon, they find out there will be no marriage and that Kitty Winter will stand trial.
Sherlock is prosecuted for burglary.
Interesting facts: Doctor Watson is no longer Sherlock's flatmate. He now lives at Queen Anne Street.
Sherlock Holmes has an assistant called Shinwell Johnson, an ex-villain, who is working for him as an underground agent.
Interesting scenes/quotes:
When Sherlock meets Violet he actually shows interest in her. Too late for that now, Sherlock old man.
After Sherlock is seriously injured in an assault, Watson goes to him and offers to beat the guys up. AWWW
There is also a scene where John muses about his relationship with Sherlock. It's a beautiful, but also sad:
„I was nearer him than anyone else, and yet I was always conscious of the gap between.“
Sherlock asks John a favour:
Sherlock: „Now, Watson, I want you to do something for me .”
John: “I am here to be used, Holmes.“ Ahhh… Ok? This is very ambiguous, Doyle. LOL
I liked: This is a very dark and disturbing story. It's different from the other stories by Doyle and I liked it a lot.

2. "The Adventure of the Blanched Soldier"
Unusually, this story is narrated by Sherlock Holmes. Why? Because, as SH, explains:
1.tJohn Watson's accounts are superficial.
2.tHe needs to stick to facts and figures.
Yeah, just admit you're missing Watson, Holmes.
The story is set in January 1903.
The Case: Holmes is visited by Mr. James M. Dodd who asks him to help him find his friend, Godfrey Emsworth. They were in the army together and after the war he sent him a letter but got no response. He tried to contact him again, but Emsworth's father replied his son had gone on a voyage round the world. Dodd is suspicious of this and tells Holmes he went to his friend's house and after he spent some time there, got an impression his friend is involved in some scandal. His suspicion was confirmed when he saw Godfrey's pale face outside the window. He is convinced he is hiding, but does not know the reason.
Of course, Sherlock and John help the young man. They discover that after Godfrey was shot, he ended up in a place where everyone was disfigured. He later found out it was a hospital and that he slept in a leper bed. That is the reason why the young man has been hiding and could not see anyone. However, the story has a happy ending. A doctor informs them it's not leprosy but some other disease and that he is going to be all right.
Interesting scenes/quotes:
Sherlock admits how important John is to him:
„Watson had at that time deserted me for a wife, the only selfish action which I can recall in our association.I was alone."
… And how much he needs him and misses him. AWWWWWW
You can also find one of Sherlock Holmes’s most famous quotes in this story:
When you have eliminated all which is impossible, then whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth.
I liked: Although I think this is a sad story, it's also one of the best Doyle's stories about friendship. Here we have a young man who is determined to find his old friend and we have Sherlock who misses his faithful companion.
The only thing I did not like is that the story is short and has ends abruptly. You wait to see the happy reunion of two friends who have not seen each other in a long time, and all you get is a woman fainting. What an anti-climax!

3. "The Adventure of the Mazarin Stone"
The Case: Sherlock is involved in the Case of the Crown Diamond. He confesses to John he expects to be murdered and that is the reason why he has the wax figure in his house again (read The Empty House if you want to know why he used it before). The main suspect is Count Negretto who comes to see him and find out how much Sherlock knows. Sherlock cleverly uses the wax dummy, a gramophone, the curtain and John to get the stone. Happy End.
Interesting facts: Sherlock has a page called Billy. Sherlock likes to dress as a workman, and old man etc.
Interesting scenes/quotes:
Sherlock: “Yes, you can, Watson. And you will, for you have never failed to play the game. I am sure you will play it to the end.”
Of course he will, Sherlock. He loves you. *evilgrin*
I liked: Sherlock sounded so bitter, and alone in this story. He sounded human. I felt sorry for him. *sigh*

4. "The Adventure of the Three Gables"
The story is narrated by John Watson.
The Case: A house agent comes to see an old lady to make an offer. He will buy her house and everything in it. Her lawyer warns her it’s a strange agreement; if she signs the document she won’t be able to take anything out of the house, including her possessions. Sherlock Holmes concludes that the person who hired the agent wants something she recently obtained. Soon, after she refuses to sell the house, someone brakes into the house and steals something, leaving a torn piece of a paper. It turns out the paper is from a book written by her son. The culprit? A woman who was involved with her son. She decided to leave him because he wanted to marry her. He did not take it well and wrote a story about her. Ah, crazy people!
In the end, Sherlock makes a deal with the woman and the case is closed.
Interesting facts: Sherlock likes to gossip. LOL
I liked: I did like the story, especially the end but I think it was too short. The woman was an intriguing character. I wish Doyle wrote more about her. 

5. "The Adventure of the Sussex Vampire"
The Case: Mrs. Gibson was found murdered but before that, her servant girl saw her trying to suck blood of her child. A vampire! Oh, interesting... The servant girl is accused because they found a gun in her wardrobe. Sherlock is not fooled; he is convinced someone placed it there. She explains how Mrs Gibson was jealous of her and hated her. Sherlock works his magic and discovers-it was suicide. Oh, noes. What about vampires?
I liked: No, I did not. This could have been a great story. It started off well, but then you got a crazy, jealous woman who killed herself. I am very disappointed.

6. "The Adventure of the Creeping Man"
The story is narrated by Doctor Watson and it’s set in September 1903.
The Case: Mr. Trevor Bennett believes his colleague, a well-known professor, is crazy. He has begun acting strangely after his engagement. The things get worse after he comes back from Prague with a box. He starts receiving mysterious letters marked with a cross. He was also attacked by his dog twice. One night he even saw him crawling in a hallway.
Because Sherlock does not want the dog to bite his master again, he goes to solve the case. 
After Sherlock and John become spies hidden in the bushes and the dog attacks again, it’s revealed the poor professor has been taking an elixir of life made by some charlatan. The love affair gave him the idea he could turn himself into a young man.
See what loves does to you? Next time, dear professor, go find someone your age!

Interesting facts: This is the story in which Holmes sends Watson his famous message (BBC Sherlock, anyone?! :D):
“Come at once if convenient-if inconvenient come all the same. SH”


6. "The Adventure of the Lion's Mane"
The story is narrated by Sherlock. It’s set in July, 1907.
The Case: After Sherlock whines more about his life and how our dear doctor does not visit him anymore, he goes for a walk and meets a man called Harold. Harold was walking to the river when he saw a man dying. His last words were “lion’s mane” and his back was covered with dark red lines. Sherlock does his magic, it seems it’s some sort of a love affair, forbidden love and stuff like that, but... NO! The secret is revealed when a dog dies in the exact same place as its master. The main suspect has also been attacked and Sherlock figures out that, in fact, an animal killed them all! Oh. Ok.
I liked: Not really. This story has a bad ending.

TBC

The final installment in the original Sherlock Holmes series includes the following short stories:

The Adventure of the Illustrious Client - 4/5 - Holmes tries to get a woman away from the clutches of a bad dude.
The Adventure of the Blanched Solider - 4/5 - Holmes narrates as Watson takes some time off.
The Adventure of the Mazarin Stone - 4/5 - The story of a missing gem is told in the third person and not narrated by Watson
The Adventure of the Three Gables - 3/5 - similar to a couple other Holmes stories
The Adventure of the Sussex Vampire - 3/5 - stretched credibility but not in the way one might think
The Adventure of the Three Garridebs - 4/5 - similar to The Red Headed League but still quite fun
The Problem with Thor Bridge - 3/5 - not bad but the ending stretched the bounds of believability somewhat
Sherlock Holmes: Adventure of the Creeping Man - 3/5 - the science is far-fetched but the story is unique
The Adventure of the Lion's Mane - 3/5 - Holmes again narrates, story is unique but again far-fetched
The Adventure of the Veiled Lodger - 3/5 - a woman explains away an incident that happened several years ago
The Adventure of Shoscombe Old Place - 3/5 - Holmes investigates some strange happenings
The Adventure of the Retired Colourman - 3/5 - a little different from the usual Holmes story

And with this I finish reading the Sherlock Canon. Although some of the stories in this collection have the classical characteristics – Holmes being a prick and using his deductive and acting skills to solve mystery, Watson with his modesty and loyalty and a range of queer cases; yet mostly this novel is rather disappointing. Sir Arthur Conan Doyle was rather tired of this character by the time he wrote this book. He had almost killed him off in some previous part and the lack of enthusiasm is reflected in some of the cases.

This collection has two stories from Holmes’s P0V. Reading them made me realise how fond I am of Watson as a character. Thus for me, the best part of the book was when Watson gets shot and Holmes drops his impersonal facade and for the first time shows his love for his good old pal. Other than that, the climax of most of the cases will make you stare at the last line for a few seconds, then shake your head and move on to the next chapter. I sensed a bit of repetition in a few cases, and some like the Tiger’s Mane and Veiled Tenant lacked any notable elements.

Reading the canon has been an immensely enjoyable experience. Study in Scarlett and Sign of Four were perhaps the most disappointing stories while Valley of Fear and The Hound of Baskervilles were my favourite. I liked Sherlock from the very beginning but it is only on finishing the last novel that I have realised how much I adore Watson too. Thank you Sir Doyle for these memorable characters and such amazing cases.

'When you have eliminated all which is impossible, then whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth.'

"Your life is not your own. Keep your hands off it."



n  12 stories but not the best of Sherlock Holmes.n
45. The Illustrious Client.
46. The Blanched Soldier.
47. The Mazarin Stone.
48. The Three Gables.
49. The Sussex Vampire.
50. The Three Garridebs.
51. Thor Bridge.
52. The Creeping Man.
53. The Lion's Mane.
54. The Veiled Lodger.
55. Shoscombe Old Place.
56. The Retired Colourman.

I'm not a big fan of all of these. They could have been much better. It feels like Watson worked harder for those cases. Sherlock was just arrogant as usual and I will prefer Poirot forever.

The last Sherlock book. How sad. It should have ended in The Final Problem five books ago, then again in His Last Bow, so I really can't blame the Victorians if they were still scanning the magazines for another Holmes case after "The Casebook".

So after nine years of deliberately slow reading, I've got to the end of the Sherlock Holmes canon. I've no doubt I'll go back and reread all the books at some point in the future, but it's still a wistful moment to know there are no more original stories to be discovered.

According to popular wisdom, The Case-Book of Sherlock Holmes is a bit of an anticlimax; it's regularly referred to as the worst of the Holmes books and a few of the stories in particular really get backs up among some of the more serious-minded scholars.



Well I'm happy to be unpopular. Even the worst Arthur Conan Doyle is better than 90 percent of the mystery fiction out there (and there are plenty of self-published efforts on Amazon if you want to see what a properly bad Sherlock Holmes story looks like); his invention, his wit, his knowledge of his characters (with the possible exception of their given names) are second to none. It's no wonder people are still picking over the footnotes of his works a century later.

There's only one true dud in Case-Book (The Adventure of the Mazarin Stone, an almost wholesale rerun of The Adventure of the Empty House, clunkily adapted from the stage) and a number of genuine late classics.

For all that it's controversial, I really enjoyed The Adventure of the Creeping Man. True it verges on the science-fictional, but for me Holmes and Watson have always occupied the same cultural sphere as their more obviously fantastic contemporaries: the Invisible Man, Fu Manchu, Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde. Moreover, it's a story that's obviously the work of the same Doyle who wrote Lot No. 249 and The Disintegration Machine, and I really like that guy.

The Adventure of the Retired Colourman, The Adventures of the Blanched Soldier, The Adventure of the Lion's Mane and The Adventure of the Veiled Lodger all have their own particular bits of ingenuity or colour that earn them their right to be considered in any discussion of the best of Holmes – and by this point I've listed over half the collection.

True, certain themes and devices reoccur that we've seen before, but not so much as the naysayers would have you believe. It's important to remember that by this point Doyle was no longer writing contemporary mysteries, but evoking a past and fondly remembered age. He was in some ways the first Holmes continuer.



Aside from a wistful final sentence, nothing about The Adventure of Shoscombe Old Place suggests it is the final Holmes story. Doyle had tried and failed to wrap the canon up three times before – I suspect he'd have returned to Holmes at intervals for as long as he lived.

It is, though, fitting that our final encounter with Holmes and Watson should be another regular case; for as long as people want to look in on them at 221B Baker Street, they will be there, sat either side of the fireplace, waiting to hear the step of their next client on the staircase...

3,75⭐️

3.5 Stars

The last of the series is a collection of 12 short stories and probably the weakest of all. An odd mixture: a few stories that were very good and a couple not at all. Doyle knew this would be the end so he took a few risks with his storytelling, sometimes getting away in places from his standard approach while other times, he seemed to be struggling.

Nonetheless, Sherlock Holmes was a delight :)

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