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A review by theconstantreader
The Adventure of the Engineer's Thumb and Other Cases by Arthur Conan Doyle
4.0
There is something about reading Sherlock Holmes that has you longing for a good fireplace and a brandy (and Brandy is not my poison of choice). I love the setup of every Sherlock tale. How Watson is the narrator and is forever one step away from the truth, how Sherlock so effortlessly solves the mystery only to have to explain all the clues and realisations to Watson at the very end where he is inevitably left enamoured saying, “By Jove!”.
It’s as if Watson is there to simply bear witness to the brilliance of Holmes and it works. It’s as if to say, you’d be forgiven dear reader for missing all the clues, because so did Watson! I like too how Holmes can come off as pompous but the way Watson receives his behaviour is so trusting and adoring that the idea of Holmes ever being self-righteous never even occurs to Watson which makes all the interactions like this light and funny. Really how could Watson ever contemplate that Holmes may be arrogant when all he can see is the stars in his eyes, Holmes is simply so smart and wonderful? It’s a genius dynamic that builds our protagonist up to one that is both likeable and inspiring despite his overt self-confidence.
The dynamics between Holmes and Watson are unsurpassed in their ability to entertain and slowly unravel the mysteries to us as if we the reader were Watson being educated by Holmes himself. Stupendously clever!
However as I read short story after short story, I did get fatigued. They are very formulaic which can get tiresome and cause them to lose their sheen after too much repetition. I also found myself irritated at times when there is no way you could solve the mystery, given there are parts shared by Holmes only in his final explanations upon solving the case, the details of which were not shared with the reader during the natural course of the story.
It seems like true grumblings though to take away from the fun that is Sherlock Holmes!
It’s as if Watson is there to simply bear witness to the brilliance of Holmes and it works. It’s as if to say, you’d be forgiven dear reader for missing all the clues, because so did Watson! I like too how Holmes can come off as pompous but the way Watson receives his behaviour is so trusting and adoring that the idea of Holmes ever being self-righteous never even occurs to Watson which makes all the interactions like this light and funny. Really how could Watson ever contemplate that Holmes may be arrogant when all he can see is the stars in his eyes, Holmes is simply so smart and wonderful? It’s a genius dynamic that builds our protagonist up to one that is both likeable and inspiring despite his overt self-confidence.
The dynamics between Holmes and Watson are unsurpassed in their ability to entertain and slowly unravel the mysteries to us as if we the reader were Watson being educated by Holmes himself. Stupendously clever!
However as I read short story after short story, I did get fatigued. They are very formulaic which can get tiresome and cause them to lose their sheen after too much repetition. I also found myself irritated at times when there is no way you could solve the mystery, given there are parts shared by Holmes only in his final explanations upon solving the case, the details of which were not shared with the reader during the natural course of the story.
It seems like true grumblings though to take away from the fun that is Sherlock Holmes!