Las Aventuras de Sherlock Holmes

I have a dim memory of reading this book when I was younger, but since then I’ve seen Sherlock Holmes in countless adaptations: movies, TV shows, comics, video games, and more. Some good, some bad.

And so, I was afraid that these stories would stick to a formula: someone brings Holmes a case; he impresses everyone by noticing impossible details and drawing strained conclusions; insults Watson for not being preternaturally observant; insults Inspector Lestrade for being an idiot; notices that one of the ashes in the fireplace is actually not only from tobacco, but produced by Javanese cigars, and thus the murderer must be blah-de-blah yadda yadda lock ‘em up, the end.

So I was glad to see that they don’t. There’s a good amount of variety: Holmes shows up the police (of course); Holmes falls in love; the mystery is not a crime; a locked-door murder outdoors; and more.

Of course, like a lot of Victorian writing, some parts have not aged well. There’s a good amount of sexism, though thankfully no racism that I noticed. It’s easy enough for a modern reader to write off these flaws as the stories being a product of their time.

I must say that I much preferred this over the previous two books – which, to me, seemed to drag on for way too long at points –, even though I would have perhaps liked fewer but slightly longer stories instead. It often appears to me that the stories conclude rather abruptly, and thus longer stories might have helped mitigate this. It took me about 20-odd minutes to finish each chapter – and thus, story – and lengthening this to perhaps 30 or 40 minutes would've made this book even better.

Nevertheless, the quality of aforesaid stories is extraordinary and it was a very engaging book I was nigh-unable to put down. I am most definitely looking forward to reading the upcoming book.