For this Friday, my obscure gumshoes, we’re dusting off our magnifying glasses and deerstalker caps and heading back to the end of the 1800s with Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s “A Study in Scarlet” the story that introduced us to the legendary Sherlock Holmes.
***The Non-Spoiler part of this review***
What I love about this book:
“A Study in Scarlet” is the classic story that introduces the archetypical detective. Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s Sherlock Holmes wasn’t the first detective in classic fiction. Edgar Allan Poe may have done that with his C. Auguste Dupin before there was a word for “detective”—but all the same, I’d argue Sherlock Holmes is the one whose larger than life persona shades all others. A lot of the reason for this, I feel, is because Holmes is such an eccentric character, which is why we keep remaking movies and tv shows about the character. In his first appearance with this novel, he doesn’t disappoint in being the full-fledged weird know-it-all he’s consistently portrayed as throughout the generations—and I’ve always loved this oddball coke addict.
I should reveal now that, no, I can never figure out any of these mysteries before the solution is revealed. Nor would I want to, I imagine, if I can figure it out, it would take away the mystique of the character.
What I don’t love about this book:
There is a hard shift in part two of this book to a story about the American west, and the founding of Salt Lake City, and Mormons—and honestly, I thought I was suddenly reading something else, the break in narrative flow is that extreme. It circles back to London, and Baker’s Street, and Sherlock Holmes after a while, but it isn’t a short interlude this whole sordid Mormons tale. It’s a significant component of “A Study In Scarlet” and Sir Arthur Conan Doyle—doesn’t feel right to me to call him anything other than his full name—does eventually explain through the narrative when we do return to London with Holmes and Watson. The device is to tell who the murderer was and why he murdered his victims. Still, I don’t really like it because it makes the narrative seem to become a completely different story, and if you’re not prepared for it, the whole experience is jarring.
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***The Spoiler part of this review***
***Ye be warned to turn back now***