I read that one and thought it was only mildly amusing because of the setting. The mystery itself wasn’t that interesting. Is the first book the runt of the litter or are all of them like that?
There is a name for this but I forget.
When a novel cultural element becomes so iconic that it establishes new norms, it appears to later generations as derivative, predictable, and unoriginal. Think of Sugalhill Gang, Die Hard, or Superman. Before Sherlock Holmes, there’s no such thing as a detective novel or a crime procedural or a hero of deductive reasoning.
By now, we’ve seen mystery stories derived from Sherlock Holmes, remixed and refiltered thousands of times. But imagine how astonishing it would have been.
Cool
They’re all like that imo. The mysteries aren’t very good from a modern perspective.
They’re worth reading - if you’re into it - for the setting, the 19th Century prose and the historical creation of the Sherlock archetype
But nah. I read them all when I was a teenager and liked them well enough, then reread last year and was pretty unimpressed with them
There’s some better ones - I’m fond of the hound of the baskervilles, and some of the short story ones are good like the red headed league
But some real dumb stuff too. Like when footprints suggest a child but Holmes knows it’s actually an African Pygmy fella.
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I’d say it’s probably in the middle. At the lower end you have the Adventure of the Three Gables, which the ending is garbage (see spoiler), and on the upper end you have Hound of the Baskervilles which is one of my favorite works of mystery ever. If you enjoyed Study in Sacrlet at all you should continue, but it is definitely in the middle in terms of quality.
Spoiler
(Sherlock just stands around and barely does nothing in the story, the evidence for the crime he presents is circumstantial at best, and in the end the criminal just confesses out of nowhere with no motive to do so.)
“A Scandal In Bohemia”
https://youtu.be/ZaDfTP7zohQ?list=PLe4nxylNvRwfBW6paWe_1fPtB85tPMizu
“The Redheaded League”
“The Man With The Twisted Lip.”
Those are, imho, the ones worth reading. Personally, I read them all, but the Doyle stories are pretty hit-or-miss. Doyle actually killed Holmes off in “The Final Problem” but ended up bringing him back from the dead.
Here’s a modern take on Holmes. “The 7% Solution.” The movie was directed by the man who wrote the original novel. Both are worth the time, even if you’re not already a Holmes fan.
Give The Tainted Cup by Robert Jackson Bennett a go. Murder mystery, political intrigue, with dark fantasy/eldritch horror vibes.
It has been a very long time since I read them, I remember them all being about the same.
