A.’s Reviews > The New Annotated Sherlock Holmes: The Complete Short Stories > Status Update

“The Final Problem”, 10/10. A masterpiece of English literature. The haunted, deadly end-time atmosphere it evokes, the machinations and subterfuges of two duellers. I widh we’d seen Holmes go over the falls — this could have been arranged tbh. Still: a fantastic original closing chapter to the canon and a great final showcase for Sherlock Holmes.

“The Naval Treaty”, 10/10. An absolute classic, with multiple layers of Holmes detection and theory-testing. The highest stakes too.

“The Greek Interpreter”, 10/10. Introduces Mycroft Holmes, the Diogenes Club, and a thoroughly damgerous mystery. Perfect.

“The Crooked Man”, 7/10. Not much deduction here lol. Another story of British people in India. Extra star for the inclusion of a mongoose.

Started “The Crooked Man”

“The Reigate Squires” 9.5/10. Utterly fantastic from beginning to end, with a dazzling series of Holmes’ deductions that only seem obvious in retrospect, a classic bait-and-switch, and a lovely backstory of Holmes’s recent burnout. One of my favorite parts of the early half of any Holmes story is his intrigue about some minor element, whose significance you can’t quite grasp.

“The Musgrave Ritual”, 9.5/10. A flashback story. The solemn mystery of the Ritual itself charges the atmosphere of the story considerably. Priceless artifacts, romantic intrigue, and a treasure hunt. Exactly why we read these stories.

“The Gloria Scott” 5/10. Not much of a mystery here. Dynamics similar to the Bascombe Valley mystery, with false identities and buried crimes. Mostly useful as a prequel, whee Holmes deduces a lot and gets told to become a detective.

“The Stockbroker’s Clerk” 5/10. A re-tread of the Red-Headed League, but less arresting.

“Silver Blaze” 9.5/10. Multiple mysteries to untangle, and some of Holmes’s best deductions.