** 4.1 Stars out of 5 Stars **

Classic mystery read. Sherlock Holmes does not disappoint.

If you are a short story fan this book is for you.

As I have stated previously, I am a huge fan of Arthur Conan Doyle.

Basically, when I come across a free version on my Kindle I pick up and add it to my night reading list before bed.

The Adventure of the Mazarin Stone


The Problem of Thor Bridge


The Adventure of the Creeping Man


The Adventure of the Sussex Vampire


The Adventure of the Three Garridebs


The Adventure of the Illustrious Client


The Adventure of the Three Gables


The Adventure of the Blanched Soldier


The Adventure of the Lion's Mane


The Adventure of the Retired Colourman


The Adventure of the Veiled Lodger


The Adventure of the Shoscombe Old Place

The Case-Book of Sherlock Holmes is a collection of twelve short Sherlock Holmes adventures. This is the final collection of Sherlock Holmes adventures written by Arthur Conan Doyle. Comparatively, this collection fell slightly short of previous short-story collections of Sherlock Holmes. Except for a few, most of the stories were ordinary. Holmes's brilliance has been deliberately subdued by treating him like a man with a superhuman mind beyond any human power of deduction. In the few stories that shone above others, Holmes was presented in his natural genius as we know him.

The twelve stories of this collection are:
The Adventure of the Illustrious Client - 3.5 stars
The Adventure of the Blanched Soldier - 3 stars
The Adventure of the Mazarin Stone - 2.5 stars
The Adventure of the Three Gables - 2 stars
The Adventure of the Sussex Vampire - 3 stars
The Adventure of the Three Garridebs - 4 stars
The Problem of the Thor Bridge - 4 stars
The Adventure of the Creeping Man - 2 stars
The Adventure of the Lion's Mane - 3.5 stars
The Adventure of the Veiled Lodger - 2 stars
The Adventure of the Shoscombe Old Place - 3 stars
The Adventure of the Retired Colourman - 5 stars

The unique and interesting feature of this collection was that the great detective himself narrated some of the stories. The stylistic difference between the narratives of Holmes and Dr. Watson was quite interesting. It's true that this collection didn’t stand up to the previous ones. However, no matter what flaws you may find in comparison, it is hard not to enjoy Sherlock Holmes adventures.

More of my reviews can be found at http://piyangiejay.com/

This last collection is an odd mixture: a few stories that are very good and a couple not at all (one was originally a play that itself seems to have been based on an earlier tale); a story in which Sherlock does nothing much but listen; two narrated by Sherlock himself (as one might imagine, he is not the storyteller Watson is, though his second tale is much better than his first, perhaps owing to relaxation in his retirement). As to Watson, age and experience become him; and his warning to one who has tried to steal his notes is priceless.

Marring my enjoyment of a few of these stories were some racist elements, though it’s true those may be considered thoughts belonging to the characters and not to Doyle himself, who seems to have been a fairly progressive thinker for his time. It was also odd to have two stories in which Englishmen have married Latin American women said to have “tropical” natures, due to their country of origin. One of them is described that way several times and by more than one character. I was born, raised and live in a subtropical climate: I guess I have a subtropical (whatever that might be) nature.

For the first time (that I am aware of), Doyle includes a short author’s preface, which was delightful. So I end my Sherlockian journey with a phrase from the preface which perhaps explains why I undertook the journey in the first place (um, that, and the Cumberbatch TV series, that is):

And so, reader, farewell to Sherlock Holmes! I thank you for your past constancy, and can but hope that some return has been made in the shape of that distraction from the worries of life and stimulating change of thought which can only be found in the fairy kingdom of romance.

الريفيو لاحقا...لحين الانتهاء من الكحك و الترمس...و الكسل

بعد فاصل طوييل من الكسل ....
قررت انه يكفي قراءة و الان موعد كتابة عدة ريفيوهات متاخرة ...

مجموعة ممتازة من قصص شيرلوك هولمز لم اقرؤها من قبل ....
كنت احتفظ بها ك تحلية ل ليالي رمضان
و انهيتها فى ايام العيد ....

قصص معتادة ل شيرلوك هولمز ....الغاز يحلها بعد زيارة لو زيارتين ل موقع الجريمة ....
الغاز يحلها بالتليفون
او يرسل د واتسون ليكون عينه فى موقع الجريمة يقابل العميل يستمع منه يسجل ملاحظته هو " د واتسون" و يكمل فرغات المعلومات شيرلوك من عنده ب البرقيات و التليفونات و البحث فى السجلات و الكتب

اتمني لو كان سجل د ارثر كونان دويل معلوماته و تقنيات علم الاستنتاج "الاستدلال" التى يستعملها على لسان بطله شيرلوك هولمز
اتمني لو كان سجلها فى كتاب عن التفكير و الاستنتاج ..كتاب لا رواية
كان سيصبح كتاب مدهش و خاصة ب اسلوب ارثر كونان دويل الممتع

الكتاب القادم :  الفتاة التي أنجبت أمها

"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.

To już jest koniec, nie ma już nic. Jesteśmy wolni, możemy iść
(zacząć czytać przygody Sherlocka od nowa).

Za mną ostatnia część opowiadań o Sherlocku Holmesie, zawierająca oczywiście kolejne trudne i zawiłe zagadki, które w starciu z niezwykłym umysłem Sherlocka i jego metodą nie mają żadnych szans. Czy w hrabstwie Sussex grasuje prawdziwy wampir? Czy guwernantka może z zimną krwią zabić swoją pracodawczynię, aby związać się z jej mężem? Jaka jest cena odzyskania młodości? Czym jest mordercza lwia grzywa? Jaką tajemnicę skrywa kobieta ukrywająca się za woalką? Rozwiązanie tych pasjonujących tajemnic czeka w ostatnim tomie przygód najsłynniejszego detektywa.

Sherlock Holmes bywa trochę specyficzny, ale mimo to uwielbiam historie z jego udziałem. Podejrzewam, że jeszcze nie raz zajrzę na Baker Street.
7/10

Nemôžem uveriť, že mám za sebou všetky príbehy Sherlocka Holmesa! A trvalo mi to len 7 rokov

Overall, I think Case Book is the weakest of the Sherlock Holmes collections. It seems pretty clear that Doyle was running out of good ideas and more and more resorting to recycling tropes and themes from previous stories in slightly altered forms. Still enjoyable and entertaining, though!

The Adventure of the Illustrious Client – 4* – One of the better and more unique stories in the Holmes canon, it drips with Victorian mores regarding sex and male-female relations, but also has a pretty terrific climax as well as one of the more memorable villains in Baron Gruner.

The Adventure of the Blanched Soldier – 3* – Pretty much The Adventure of the Yellow Face with different particulars, and also narrated by Holmes, which was a really bad idea.

The Adventure of the Mazarin Stone – 2* – Wikipedia tells me this was originally written as a stage play, which is why it's in the third person. Perhaps that's why it's also so forgettable.

The Adventure of the Three Gables – 1* – Aside from the casual racism, this story also features an anticlimactic conclusion and a dull, meandering path to getting there. One of my least favorite stories.

The Adventure of the Sussex Vampire – 5* – I'm a sucker for English gothic mysteries, apparently, and it's hard to get more gothic than a mother accused of sucking her son's blood. This one is flattered by the dullness of the story right before it, but I think it stands pretty well on its own.

The Adventure of the Three Garridebs – 2* – This story was better done when it was The Red-Headed League.

The Problem of Thor Bridge – 3* – Not a bad story, except for the appearance of the stock "American who talks like a Brit doing a bad impersonation of an American" character that Doyle tries on from time to time.

The Adventure of the Creeping Man – 4* – A little science fiction thrown into this one makes it particularly memorable, even if the "science" part is ridiculous.

The Adventure of the Lion's Mane – 2* – If it's obvious to me from the beginning what "the lion's mane" is, everyone else should be ashamed of themselves for how long it took them to figure it out. Also, it's narrated by Holmes, and that, as we've established, is not fun at all.

The Adventure of the Veiled Lodger – 2* – Pretty unclear to me what the purpose of this story is.

The Adventure of Shoscombe Old Place – 3* – A few more gothic touches with this one, including some grave robbery, and all in all not a bad story for Doyle to go out on.

The Adventure of the Retired Colourman – 3* – Again, not bad but nothing terrific either. Another perplexing chapter in the series of cases where Holmes asks Watson to investigate for him, then criticizes almost everything he does.

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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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.

With this book I have re-read the entire Sherlock Holmes canon. I loved every minute and will probably do it again several times with whatever amount of time I have left to me.

The complete canon would be a great desert island suggestion.

A tip--get these books with the original illustrations. Makes them even more fun.