A Study in Scarlet: Part 2 - Chapter 1-4

[Winter, Group Reads]

This is the discussion thread for A Study in Scarlet by Arthur Conan Doyle Part 2 - Chapter 1-4

[RJ - Slayer of Trolls]

What just happened? It's like a whole new story just started.

[SarahKat, Buddy Reads]

Randy wrote: "What just happened? It's like a whole new story just started."

Yeah I didn't like this part at all.

[RJ - Slayer of Trolls]

SarahKat wrote: "Randy wrote: "What just happened? It's like a whole new story just started."

Yeah I didn't like this part at all."

I don't mind it. It just came out of nowhere.

[Amy]

It is a little odd that he wrote it this way, almost like he already had this Mormon story and just grafted it onto a Sherlock Holmes story.

[Ilona]

This part is very strange, but also quite interesting. I really hope that it turns out to have some connection to the first story. It made me realize how little I know about the Mormon way of living.

[Simon]

Ilona wrote: "This part is very strange, but also quite interesting. I really hope that it turns out to have some connection to the first story. It made me realize how little I know about the Mormon way of living."

It's essentially a prequel, I think. It will probably explain why Jefferson Hope (the murderer in part one) kills Strangerson and Drebber (the murder victims). So it's very much connected to the first story.

It's interesting because I've never read any thriller/crime/mystery book that reveals the backstory and motive after the arrest in this way.

[Eileen]

I also tought it was interesting. I didn't expected it at all but I didn't mind, it's like 2 stories in 1. I wonder if all of this books are like that.. I might continue reading some of his books to find out :p

[Suki]

I remember the first time I read this book, and what a shock the abrupt transition from Victorian London to the American Old West was. At first I thought that a chunk of a different book had been bound up with Scarlet, but when I checked at the library, all the copies were like that.

There is a lot of backstory here, but I kind of find it tedious because the Old West is one of the eras of history that I have the least interest in. I am reading an annotated edition of the book (The New Annotated Sherlock Holmes, Volume III: The Novels , with commentary by Leslie Klinger). There is a great deal of fascinating information about features in the story: one fact that I found to be particularly intetesting was that the mid-Victorian English impression of Mormons was as "white slavers", who stole English servant-girls and spirited them away to Utah. (In reality, the girls left voluntarily and in quite large numbers because there were prospects for a better life in Utah than as a servant in England.) The book goes on to comment that when A Study in Scarlet was published, it must have confirmed the views of a good many British that there was nothing wickeder than a Mormon.

[Megan BG]

Suki wrote: "I remember the first time I read this book, and what a shock the abrupt transition from Victorian London to the American Old West was. At first I thought that a chunk of a different book had been b..."

That's very interesting! I had no idea. Thanks for sharing. :)

[Katie]

Well, that was odd!
I figured this section is meant to be a prequel to what happened. I was very confused in the first bit. (view spoiler)[ but once I read "Brother Drebber" as one of the men in the group who found the man and girl, I knew it had some tie-in; most likely backstory (hide spoiler)]
It's interesting the way this is written: how Doyle writes the entire mystery, then does a prequel with the backstory and reasoning behind it afterwards.
I"m interested too see how it plays out.

[Katie]

Randy wrote: "SarahKat wrote: "Randy wrote: "What just happened? It's like a whole new story just started."

Yeah I didn't like this part at all."

I don't mind it. It just came out of nowhere."

I was definitely caught off guard too!
"Who the heck are these people, now?!"

[Katie]

Simon wrote: "Ilona wrote: "This part is very strange, but also quite interesting. I really hope that it turns out to have some connection to the first story. It made me realize how little I know about the Mormo..."

I agree this way of revealing the backstory is interesting!
Usually after the crime is solved, the only details about the backstory you know come from the person who solved the crime (like if Holmes was explaining how the clues were put together)
You don't normally get a full-on narrative set during the present time.

[Ashley]

The backstory was interesting, but felt a little disjointed from the rest of the story. This is the first book though and the author probably changes the style a little as we kept writing these stories.