The Case-Book of Sherlock Holmes (Sherlock Holmes #9)

[Kadijah Michelle]

This thread is to discuss the Arthur Conan Doyle book, The Case-Book of Sherlock Holmes, the 9th book in the Sherlock Holmes Series.

Pages: 303 pages

Length: 1 month

Participants: Ashley, Ilona, RJ, Scott, Suki

Everyone reads at their own pace during a Buddy Read. Because participants can be at different parts of the book at different times, it is extremely important to mark spoilers so that the book is not ruined for someone who is not as far along as others!!!

Mark spoilers by placing {spoiler} before the text and {/spoiler} after the text but use the < and > instead of the { and }.


Happy Buddy Reading!

[RJ - Slayer of Trolls]

I'll be starting this one in the next few days after taking a brief Sherlock Holmes recess. Has anyone else started yet?

I can't believe I have almost finished the massive volume of The Complete Sherlock Holmes that has been sitting on my bedside table for over half a year! We're down to the final few stories now...

[Ashley]

I have one story left in The Last Bow and then I will be starting this. I have been really busy and reading is falling behind.

[Ashley]

I finished The Adventure of the Illustrious Client. There is no investigation in this story, so it was a little different. (view spoiler)[ Holmes and Watson try to tell a woman who her fiance really is. I thought this was a more common theme, as the fiance is playing psychological games and that psychology and mind games were not well know when these stories were written, as far a I know. This was an interesting take. (hide spoiler)]

[Ashley]

I finished Adventure of the Blanched Soldier. (view spoiler)[ Again, there was no investigation. A solider asked Holmes for help after discovering something is going on with one of his friends who was also a soldier. Holmes uses deductions to come to a conclusion, which you find out in the end. But there are no clues to follow. (hide spoiler)]

[RJ - Slayer of Trolls]

Starting today!

[Ashley]

RJ wrote: "Starting today!"

Enjoy. I can't believe this is the end. We have been reading this for so long.

[Scott]

I really liked the first story. Holmes can be a real master of tricks and disguise

[RJ - Slayer of Trolls]

I finished The Adventure of the Illustrious Client and liked it. Like you mentioned Ashley there was no real mystery in this one but still plenty to do for Holmes and Watson. Someone's past did eventually come back to haunt him, but not in the usual way, so that was refreshing.

I thought the brief introduction was interesting, in which Doyle blatantly says that he's sick of writing Holmes stories. I think there have been times during the series that I had gotten the feeling that Doyle was tired of Holmes, but most of those times came earlier in the series, prior to The Hound of the Baskervilles.

[Ashley]

I just finished The Adventure of the Creeping Man. I enjoyed this one. So far out of this collection, this story is my favorite. There is some investigation and it was an entertaining story.

[RJ - Slayer of Trolls]

I finished the second story: The Adventure of the Blanched Solider. It had the unique twist of being narrated by Holmes instead of Watson. In fact, Watson doesn't make an appearance in the story at all, just a couple of offhand mentions. The ending wasn't too much of a surprise but it was still interesting and I liked it.

[Ashley]

I just finished The Adventure of the Lion's Mane. This was also told by Holmes and Watson was not involved in it. This was a unique story with an interest twist.

[Ashley]

Finished The Adventure of the Veiled Lodger. (view spoiler)[ There was no investigation in this story. It was an interesting story about something that Holmes heard and questioned when it occurred and now he is being told what actually happened. It is just a person involved telling him, but it was interesting. (hide spoiler)]

[Ashley]

Finished the last 2 stories. I thought The Adventure of the Retired Colourman was going to be a little boring at the beginning of it, but I actually enjoyed it. It was different than I thought it was going to be.

[RJ - Slayer of Trolls]

I finished The Adventure of the Mazarin Stone - it's also not narrated by Watson but is instead told in the third person. I enjoyed it.

[RJ - Slayer of Trolls]

I read a couple more:

The Adventure of the Three Gables was similar to some other Holmes stories with (view spoiler)[someone committing a crime for reasons that might not be wholly evil and Holmes settles matters outside of the court system (hide spoiler)].

The Adventure of the Sussex Vampire (view spoiler)[doesn't actually have any vampires! That's fine of course, but I was disappointed in the ending which I found a little unrealistic. (hide spoiler)]

I thought both of these stories weren't quite as good as earlier stories in this collection and in the series.

[RJ - Slayer of Trolls]

I finished The Adventure of the Three Garridebs and liked it more than the two prior stories. It didn't take long to catch the similarities to The Red Headed League but I enjoyed it anyway.

[RJ - Slayer of Trolls]

I finished The Problem with Thor Bridge. I thought the ending was a little bit unlikely but otherwise it was a good story.

[RJ - Slayer of Trolls]

I finished The Creeping Man and The Adventure of the Lion's Mane. Both stories shared some similarities. They were both interesting ideas that were different from other Holmes stories. But unfortunately both of them ended up being a little bit far-fetched and unlikely in their conclusions. I liked them both but not as much as other Holmes stories. Lion's Mane was the second story narrated by Holmes himself with no appearance of Watson at all.

[RJ - Slayer of Trolls]

I finished The Adventure of the Retired Colourman. It had a uniqueness to the story that made it stand out, in terms of the final culprit.

The last few stories in the collection weren't particularly inspirational to me. I wonder if I was just tired of Holmes or if Doyle was tired of writing the stories. They weren't quite "stuck in a rut" like some of the mid-series stories seemed to get, but they just felt kind of tired.

Anyway, I'm completely done with the Holmes series, so now I can use that huge leather volume as a doorstop or something. I'm glad I read the whole thing, but I'm also glad to be moving on.

Thanks Ashley and Scott for sticking it out to the end!

[Scott]

Finished I had a hard time enjoying the last few Stories