Honestly, a teensy bit disappointed in this one. It was more fun in bits and pieces than it was as a whole. This is the novel that famously originated at a dinner between an American publisher, Conan Doyle, and Oscar Wilde. Out of that meeting came The Sign of the Four (which is often shortened to just ‘The Sign of Four‘) and The Picture of Dorian Gray, which I think most people would agree is the superior output (ACD thought it might be good fun […]
“I often think we should have tattooed on the back of whatever hand we use to shoot or write, ‘I might be wrong.”
I still really like this series, but I was a bit more lukewarm over this book than I wanted to be. Let’s split it up into good and not-so-good. First, good: The mystery in this one was interesting. CC de Poitiers is a wannabe lifestyle guru who has recently moved to Three Pines with her husband and child, whom she disliked and ignored. Her relationship with Crie, her overweight fourteen year old daughter, is downright emotionally abusive. She is seen as cruel by everybody who […]
Liked it even more this time!
Okay, so now having finished my first re-read of this book, I am so tempted to up the rating to five stars. A large portion of that desire comes from listening to the audio this time around. There’s something really satisfying about Robert Glenister’s voice narrating this story; it most definitely increased my enjoyment. Another part is that this just feels like the ideal murder mystery to me right now. It was exactly what I was craving, plus some. I love all the clues and […]
“There’s a scarlet thread of murder running through the colourless skein of life.”
The first novel down in my quest to read The Complete Sherlock Holmes by the end of 2018. Though I have seen numerous adaptations of Sherlock Holmes stories over the years, I only managed to read a handful of the actual source material as a child (and The Hound of the Baskervilles is the only one I remember with any clarity). I never managed to read this one, which gives us the introduction between Mr. Sherlock Holmes, consulting detective, and Dr. John Watson, his friend […]