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 […]
A fixed point in a changing age.
This was fun! I think I expected a bit more from it, but overall it was an entertaining, informative look at the phenomenon of Sherlock Holmes. First, what didn’t work for me. Dundas bases this entire book on trying to find out the answers to a central question, why has Sherlock Holmes endured, reviving and reviving over 130 years? Well, the problem here is that there isn’t really an answer to that question! There are 5,000 possible answers. It’s not something anyone will ever *know*. […]
“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 […]
Impossible, Improbable, the Truth
It would be heartening to believe that the misalliance between myth and medicine is at an end and that today murders are examined only through the prism of the scientific method, but this is a comfort we may not have. – Kindle Edition location 2253 It took me a while to finish this one, and in the end it wasn’t really the book I wanted, alas.