El último de los libros de Sherlock Holmes escritos por su creador. Una interesante colección de relatos que incluso nos permite ver a un Holmes, ya jubilado y alejado de Watson, resolviendo su ¿Ultimo? caso.

Remarcaria dentro de la colección, la misteriosa "El vampiro de Sussex", la inquietante "los tres Gabletes y la divertidisima "Los tres Garrideb"

Como el resto de colecciones de relatos y novelas de Holmes, una delicia difícil de superar. Echaré mucho de menos leer nuevas historias cada verano, pero para superarlo, comenzaremos con las novelas del profesor Chellenger :D

In GThe Lions Mane Holmes is OLD! It is really stressful to see your favorite characters grow old. Then in one of the stories Watson get shot! Thankfully he doesn't die! but OMG! I was hyperventilating! I am so fond of both of them that if one of them, died I would like die too!
I would recommend this to anyone who likes mystery stories or loves both Holmes and Watson!

possibly my very favourite sherlock holmes collection!

n  ***The Summer of Sherlock 2019***n

The last collection of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s stories about the great detective. They’re not bad, but they certainly are not his best efforts either. By this time, he had already tried to kill Mr. Holmes and had to revive him. These last few stories, it seems, were written as money making ventures. Not that there’s anything wrong with that, authors should make money from their creations. I guess what I’m saying is that Doyle’s heart really didn’t seem to be in these stories.

There also seems to be an awful lot of violence and unhappiness. In The Adventure of the Illustrious Client there is an evil criminal who is “ruining” women just for the pure misogynistic joy of it. Plus, there is vitriol throwing, disfiguring those that it doesn’t kill. The Adventure of the Three Gables has racism on display in an ugly fashion. Two of the stories feature dysfunctional families and marriages that are obviously in trouble (The Adventure of the Sussex Vampire and The Problem of Thor Bridge). In the first, there is potential for the spouses to reconcile, but in the second, the unfaithful husband seems to be almost rewarded and definitely goes unpunished. There is also disfigurement in The Adventure of the Veiled Lodger.”

Two of the stories have medical solutions: The Adventure of the Blanched Soldier, which at least ends semi-happily and The Adventure of the Creeping Man, a tale of medical quackery.

Disappointing or not, they are part of the Holmes canon and I am glad to have read them.

The weakest of Doyle's story collections, and several sections are utterly reprehensible by today's standards. The racism, anti-Semitism, and misogyny are very much in keeping with some late-Victorian, early Edwardian sensibilities but alarming to encounter over 100 years later.

1.5 stars

"Arhiva lui Sherlock Holmes" este o colecție de povestiri scurte care rememorează 12 dintre ultimele cazuri ale celebrului detectiv.
Două dintre ele sunt, ca excepție, relatate chiar de Sherlock, iar unul dintre cazurile din carte a avut loc după pensionare.

Well, I've now read the nine books in the Sherlock Holmes canon, and what a ride! After the initial two disappointing novels came three very good short story collections, a great novel, a better-than-average novel and a slightly-better-than-average short story collection. To finish off the series, "The Case-Book" is... well, not that great. On the one hand, Conan Doyle's prose skills have developed considerably from the early days of A Study in Scarlet and his handling of both atmosphere and the Holmes/Watson relationship is rivalled perhaps only by that series peak, The Hound of the Baskervilles. However, there's not really a lot to recommend here. In truth, it's 2 stars for a non-Holmes fan, and 2-and-a-half if you know and love the guy already.

The bad:

One of the most frustrating elements of this book (admittedly a collection of individually-published short stories) are how often similar character tropes pop up. There are three - maybe four - fiery foreign ladies whose ethnicity is a key part of the solution.

The Adventure of the Creeping Man - the biggest letdown in the canon. This story features the single most arresting, chilling images that Holmes and Watson ever encounter, but is ruined by a gobsmackingly bad denouement.

The Adventure of the Mazarin Stone - adapted from a play, this story not only relies on previously unheard-of architectural features at Baker Street, but fails to capture the reader's interest or render the characters particularly realistically.

The Illustrious Client - can barely even remember it. Moving on.


The thoroughly average

Intriguingly, many of the stories herein are structured less as 'whodunnits' and more as 'howdunnits'. Very few of the stories (indeed, only really two) feature more than one suspect. Some stories never even attempt to hide the perpetrator, the question is instead "what is going on?". This is not unprecedented in the canon by any means, but is highly concentrated here.

Thor Bridge - while it has a clever denouement and some good characterisation, it is another story that doesn't stick in the mind.

The Three Gables - this story is noted most for the questionable racial stereotype character who opens the piece. Personally, I'd argue he has at least two dimensions, and he is a bad guy who happens to be black rather than any kind of argument being made, but it's still a bit edgy, I'll concede. The story itself is quite readable, but no great secret or particularly intriguing characters jump out at us. (Indeed, the story has mild echoes of other stories in the canon.)

The unsatisfying

The Lion's Mane - one of two stories in this volume to be narrated by Holmes (and not to feature Watson at all), the tone of voice is delightful, and the atmosphere electric. However - as with the much earlier story The Five Orange Pips - it is ultimately unsatisfying. This ISN'T Conan Doyle's fault for once; but as with that story, most modern readers will pick up the solution the minute the clues arrive, as it is no longer something mysterious...

The odd

Perhaps most interesting is to see how public sensibilities changed over the years. The early works could only hint at impropreity, while the crimes in this and the previous collection are far more wide-ranging. Bodies - when they appear, which is actually quite rare here - are often brutally destroyed; people having affairs are clearly now having sexual ones; alcohol is far more prevalent. A window into a world.

The Veiled Lodger is a strange, haunting little piece. It is one of the better stories in the collection, although a bizarre addition. It isn't really a mystery at all, but a retelling of a "cold case", with a dark and brooding central figure who has spent years following Holmes' career. Unsettling, but also un-Holmesian.

The Sussex Vampire - atmospheric and ripe for adaptation, yes. Silly? Even more so. Along with one of our many fiery Latin women, the solution hearkens back to the exotica and melodrama of the early Holmes novels. While the true villain of the piece is deftly handled, the vampirism is a tad overdone.

The ... satisfactory?

One shouldn't assume this book is a 'write-off', it's just that even the four most typical Holmes stories, as outlined below, are somewhat lacking.

Shoscombe Old Place and The Blanched Soldier - have some intriguing set pieces, but aren't particularly memorable (aside from the latter being written by Mr. Sherlock Holmes himself).

The Retired Colourman - the most Holmesian story in the collection, but - as mentioned before - lacks suspects. However, it is also possibly the best story in the collection as it features some lovely secondary characters.

The Three Garridebs - well-plotted but, aside from lacking in suspects, is basically a shot-for-shot remake of an early (and very memorable) Holmes short story.

I apologise for the length, but this sums up both the story and the collection: Conan Doyle had tired of Holmes to an extent, and what we get here are stories that focus on the complexity of how the crime was done, rather than making the surrounding elements - suspects, primarily - a mystery. As a result, we generally get a puzzle followed by a chase. Not always unsatisfying, but never as captivating as the earlier works.

In closing, if you're new to the wonderful world of Holmes, there are many other better ideas. Read The Hound of the Baskervilles and any of the other, earlier short story collections - Adventures, Memoirs or The Return. If you like those, read The Valley of Fear, His Last Bow and (to know how it all began)A Study in Scarlet. If ALL of those suit you, then come crawling to this one. (Don't bother with The Sign of Four as no good can come from that.)

Certainly the weakest set of the original canon, but still a few good pieces. The three garridebs and the retired colourman were particularly interesting.

Despite the title previous Holmes compendium being called  His Last Bow and the fact his brother Mycroft killed him before that, this is the last last Holmes novel by  arthur conan doyle.

Anyway, in keeping with my last Holmes and Watson review I offer the following:

"Sherlock Holmes and Dr. John Watson went on a camping trip. After sharing a good meal and a bottle of Petrie wine, they retire to their tent for the night.

At about 3 AM, Holmes nudges Watson and asks, "Watson, look up into the sky and tell me what you see?"

Watson said, "I see millions of stars."

Holmes asks, "And, what does that tell you?"

Watson replies, "Astronomically, it tells me there are millions of galaxies and potentially billions of planets. Astrologically, it tells me that Saturn is in Leo. Theologically, it tells me that God is great and we are small and insignificant. Horologically, it tells me that it's about 3 AM. Meteorologically, it tells me that we will have a beautiful day tomorrow. What does it tell you, Holmes?"

Holmes retorts, "Someone stole our tent."

Indeed

3.5/5

This was a fun collection of short stories! Some were much more enjoyable than others, but at the end of the day I'm there more for Sherlock and Watson's friendship than the mysteries. And that's a wrap on the Sherlock canon!! I look forward to re-reading all the stories at some point in the future!

Definitely the weakest entry - the franchise was getting tired by this point
This was the last of the Sherlock Holmes collections, and definitely the one that felt a bit tired and going through the motions, though still skillfully done. It just felt as though Doyle needed to churn more stories out to please his fans and generate some income, a situation not confined to modern authors, and still a far more enviable situation that the starving artist who receives no recognition at all. The stories also seems quite dark and more unpleasant in parts, so really only stuck this one out as it was the last in Stephen Fry's Definitive Collection, which in its 71hrs entirety remains the most impressively done audiobook I've experienced to date.

By finishing this book, I not only finish "just a book", I have also arrived at the final stop of a journey. The journey of mr. Holmes and dr. Watson. So I would like to recap for just a moment on that journey through over fifty short stories and four novels. It's been a fun journey, I've seen a writer grow and employ his skills better and better. I've seen the stories grow more and more interesting, more exciting. I'm actually quite sad knowing there's nothing new in store for me, the journey has been a fascinating one. Sadly, the last set of stories disappoints.
If you'd ask me, Doyle should have stopped writing these stories the second he finished "His Last Bow", the return and his last bow being my favourite set of stories. These stories were excellent, fun, inventive and up to the "Holmes standard". The stories included in the Case-Book, are often far-fetched and uninspiring. Also, the cases don't seem to focus on criminal issues anymore. Instead, in a couple of stories, Holmes gets called in in, well, seemingly domestic problems ( of course, in the end the problems always turn out to be well within the criminal spectrum, or at least bordering on it ). There were at least a good deal of problems that made me scratch the back of my head at the beginning of the story, thinking "Why are they calling in Holmes over thís?".
I could feel the writer getting tired of the character of Sherlock Holmes. Most stories are shorter than the standard short story, which is about thirty pages and the writing seems.. off. I occasionally lost track of where the plot was going in these books, because the writing felt rushed. I've never experienced that with the earlier stories. The stories are repetitive, some cover similar, if not the same, storylines or details that earlier stories have featured.
But, of course there are interesting aspects to these stories. This collection features two stories that are narrated by Holmes himself, which is quite refreshing. The reader also is treated to an inside look in the place where the detective has decided to retire.