【 A STUDY IN SCARLET 】

book #1 in the Sherlock Holmes series

Genre: Mystery
Audience: Adult
Author: Arthur Conan Doyle
Published: December 1887
Publisher: Penguin Books
Pages: 142 (paperback)

I’ve decided to start a read through of the Sherlock Holmes books in chronological order – and this was delightful to start at the very beginning of Holmes and Watson’s relationship. I loved the way this book began by introducing the circumstances in which the two meet, followed by an excellent mystery of course.

This is short and sweet, but I have to say I was slightly baffled by its structure. I couldn’t recall, when I started this, exactly what this story was. I’m not sure if I was actually familiar with it prior to reading. But I certainly wasn’t expecting part two to be an extended back story set in Utah!

Though exciting in itself, the jarring transition from smoggy London and a pensive Sherlock solving a case, to a desert setting in Utah with Mormons was very unexpected. And while I did enjoy this story, it was just that I wasn’t expecting it, and so I found myself trying to work out if this was related or not, and got a little confused. But eventually things do come around and it all makes sense, so fear not.

Being intensely familiar with the Sherlock world (mostly through the TV series, I won’t lie), I found this thrilling to see how the series introduces the wonderful Holmes to the reader by really walking you through how he deduces various facts to narrow down the identity of the killer.

For a shortish book, this was very fun and exactly the sort of camaraderie you’re after between the two characters. I also loved how much more silly the police are depicted in the books as versus the TV series.

I listened to the audiobook very, narrated by Stephen Fry, and can heartily recommend it as an excellent experience and a great way to immerse yourself in the story.

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Title: A Study in Scarlet
Series: Sherlock Holmes #1
Author: Arthur Conan Doyle
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When Dr John Watson takes rooms in Baker Street with amateur detective Sherlock Holmes, he has no idea that he is about to enter a shadowy world of criminality and violence. Accompanying Holmes to an ill-omened house in south London, Watson is startled to find a dead man whose face is contorted in a rictus of horror. There is no mark of violence on the body yet a single word is written on the wall in blood. Dr Watson is as baffled as the police, but Holmes’s brilliant analytical skills soon uncover a trail of murder, revenge and lost love . . .