'The Red-Headed League' has a ginger haired man asking Holmes to help him figure out why his cushy job writing from the dictionary suddenly came to an end without any warning. Holmes deduces that the scheme is the plan of a master criminal and seeks to get Scotland Yard involved least a national financial crisis bring the British Empire to its knees. I had erroneously thought for years that the mastermind was Professor Moriarty but the arch villain is somebody else.
'The Five Pips' has Sherlock Holmes taking on the Ku Klu Klan! Written in the late 1880s, at a time when the KKK had fallen dormant, Holmes learns that a young man is being targeted by former members who want some papers that were once in the possession of a relative who died shortly before he had received a threatening letter as well. One of the detective's rare fails, the story is a let down because even though Holmes swear vengeance on the murderers, he never gets it because a storm sinks the boat that houses the killers!
Of the other 10 short stories in this book, I think I have previously read 3 or 4 others. I figured out the crime or the villain behind the crimes at least twice before Holmes does. I'm definitely not as bright as Sherlock Holmes. So I either have read those tales before or seen an adaptation on TV.
Shortly after The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes was published in 1892, Doyle would kill off Holmes in 'The Final Problem' a year later. The detective's death was temporary. But you can see the author's boredom with the character in many of these tales. The concluding story, 'The Copper Beeches', is the most guilty. At the beginning of the tale, Sherlock bemoans that he thinks that the days of thrilling adventures are behind him. All that's left is helping forgetful little old ladies remember where they left their rent money, he claims. Holmes and Watson basically skewer their readers love of sensationalism in the events of their adventures before going on to solve a mystery that I could figure out a mile away.
However I see ideas for other stories swirling around Doyle's noggin. The vicious mastiff that brings the story to a conclusion foreshadows Sherlock's first case when he returns from the dead in The Hounds of the Baskervilles. These might not be the mysteries that Doyle put the most care and effort in. But I enjoyed them. At a time where I am having trouble reading graphic novels and comics for very long, I can devote a good 30-45 minutes reading and Holmes and Watson. I might not understand some of that era's slang and I might have to go back when I discover that I overlooked something. But being able to read such complex works was a feat that impressed my neurologist last week. There more Holmes out there and I will be returning to 221B Baker Street again in the near future.
Worth Consuming!
Rating: 8 out of 10 stars.
