„I had always known that vengeance would be sweet, but I had never hoped for the contentment of soul which now possessed me.“ Mir hätte es besser gefallen, wenn Hinweise und Spuren Stück für Stück aufgeklärt worden wären und nicht erst zum Schluss eine ausführliche Erklärung kommt, aber ansonsten hat es Spaß gemacht zu lesen.

[Review contains minor spoilers] I came for Sherlock Holmes and stayed for John Ferrier. Where can I get me a man like that lol? Honest and hardworking, loyal and protective over his adoptive daughter, recognizes the mormons for the misogynistic cult they are AND celibate? Only in a book could such a perfect man exist. Anyways, everyone knows Sherlock Holmes and I looove, love, love the concept and the characters of Sherlock and John, as well as their dynamic. I've watched all movies and tv shows and finally I'm reading the books (btw if you're looking for a good tv show I can recommend the classic Granada Holmes and Elementary, don't bother with the BBC version unless you have nothing else to do). I never knew the book was parted in two stories, first half with John & Sherlock and the second half was the story of John Ferrier, but of course the story connects to the case. Honestly I didn't expect the second half to hold my attention as it did, I would've read a whole book or series about John Ferrier and his daughter on his own! Final words: Great introduction to Sherlock and John as characters, an actual classic for a reason (unlike some others... looking at you Shadow over innsmouth, ugh.)

Inhalt: Soeben aus dem Krieg zurückgekehrt, ist Dr. Watson auf der Suche nach einer günstigen Bleibe in London. Diese findet er in Form von Sherlock Holmes. Doch kaum in der Baker Street eingezogen, sind die zwei schon dabei, einen geheimnisvollen Mord zu lösen... Meine Meinung: Schon lange hegte ich den Wunsch, „Sherlock Holmes“ zu lesen. Die vielen Bücher, die es mit und über ihn gibt, machten mir nur noch neugieriger. Jedoch nahm ich mir vor, erst einmal das Original zu lesen, bevor ich mich an die neumodischen Adaptionen mache. Dann, während der Ferien, fielen mir zwei Bücher der BBC-Serie „Sherlock Holmes“ in die Hände. Überrascht stellte ich fest, dass es sich dabei um die Bücher von Sir Arthur Conan Doyle handelte. Bloss mit Benedict Cumberbatch und Martin Freeman auf dem Cover. Umgehend stürzte ich mich auf "A Study in Scarlet". Und war gleich mal überrascht. War da etwas gekürzt? Die Sprache modernisiert? Ich hatte mehr mit einem Text in Richtung Charles Dickens gerechnet, eher schwierig zu lesen, ausführend, mit vielen Beschreibungen und langen Gesprächen. Nix da! Die Geschichte beginnt ohne Umschweife und obwohl es kein Englisch für Anfänger ist, liest sich die Geschichte wirklich gut und flüssig. Etwas, das ich gar nicht erwartet hatte. Umso mehr genoss ich dann auch die Geschichte um Dr. Watson und den brillanten Sherlock. Vor allem die Szene, in der sie sich kennenlernen, finde ich richtig super. Man bekommt sofort ein Gespür für die Figuren und kann eigentlich gar nicht anders, als weiterlesen und gespannt sein, was weiter passieren wird. Es dauert oft ein wenig, bis wir nachvollziehen können, was in Sherlock Holmes vor sich geht. Wieso geht er vor der Strasse des Hauses auf und ab? Die Erklärung folgt erst später und schon hat Doyle den Leser erwischt. Woher weiss Sherlock all das, was er weiss? Hören wir dann die Lösung ergibt alles vollkommen Sinn. So baut der Autor die Geschichte gekonnt auf, wie ein Kind seine Bauklötze. Nur der Mittelteil, in dem ausführlich berichtet wird, wie es zu den Morden kam, packte mich nicht so. Die Binnenhandlung um eine tragische Liebe war mir dann doch etwas zu viel des Guten und etwas zu viel Drama. Aber vielleicht bin ich diesbezüglich einfach ein wenig zu pingelig. Unerwarteterweise kehren wir nach dem Ausflug in die Vergangenheit noch einmal zu Sherlock und Watson zurück. Ich ging eigentlich davon aus, dass dieser Teil als zusätzliche Geschichte gedacht war. Und noch einmal: Nix da. Wirklich, dieses Buch überraschte mich immer wieder. Ebenfalls überraschte es mich damit, dass die letzten 20 Seiten bloss eine Leseprobe sind, und ich ganz plötzlich vor dem letzten Satz stand. Mensch! Zum Glück gibt es noch weitere Geschichten und das nächste Buch um dieses Dreamteam wartet schon auf mich! Fazit: Ein Buch, das wirklich Spass macht. Spass in dem Sinne, dass das Lesen spannend ist und begeistert. Dass die Figuren überraschen und lebendig wirken. Dass die Seiten nur so dahinfliegen. Ein richtig schöner Krimi ohne grosses Abschlachten und Blutvergiessen, wie sie seit Neuestem modern sind. Sondern eine Leiche und ein Detektiv, der seine ganz eigenen Methoden hat.

I had ambiguous impression until the end with this milestone in crime fiction. The beginning (When Sherlock met Watson) was very interesting. Funny, how close the modern TV serie is to the original. The book isn't a classic whodunnit thriller, which in itself isn't a problem. The story is not designed to compete with the detective and to develop suspicions about the offender. The eccentric main character enjoys this privilege, but why didn't the author stay true to this central element and let us share in Sherlock's genius the whole time? Instead, Sherlock pulls the murderer like a white rabbit out of a detective hat to the middle of the book. I thought the book might have been two crime stories when it suddenly went on in Utah. I was simply not interested in this tpart of the story. At the end the plot returns to London and the offender can then tell the story from his view that miraculously coincides with that of Sherlock. Conclusion: The structure of the story is almost a catastrophe for me, but because of the characters it was still a satisfying reading experience.

A Study in Scarlet is a book that starts the adventures of Sherlock Holmes and Dr. John Watson. They become friends and start living together in London. The story kicks off with a mysterious case: a man named Enoch Drebber is found dead with no clear cause and a strange word written in blood nearby. Sherlock Holmes uses his unique skills to solve the case. The book has two main parts. The first part is about Holmes and Watson solving the London mystery. The second part takes us to the American West to explain why the murder happened, telling a story of love, betrayal, and revenge. This book introduces readers to the detective genre's classic elements like clues, suspects, and Holmes's famous deductive reasoning. However, it shifts between London and America, which might feel like reading two different stories.

Having watched and played various iterations of movies and games, the book itself while absolutely displaying the enormous traits of Mr. Holmes lacks in the density of display of his character, most likely due to the narrowed use of words and the nature of the memoir written by by Watson. The backstory in the second half with the incredibly jarring absence of the protagonist had me by surprise and is the reason for the lack of the star.

I have made it my goal yo read all of the main Sherlock Holmes novels within the next few months, and of course I had to start with the first story! I knew the episode of the TV show, so I was familiar with all the major plot twists, but I enjoyed it nevertheless. Sherlock is such a unique and extraordinary character that it's almost impossible not to like him and the witty banter he has with Watson (who is mostly as clueless as me). What was missing, however, was the thrill I am used to from Sherlock's stories. This felt a bit Miss Marple like in the way in which he solved the case practically from his living room. These types of mysteries are unarguably my least favorite. Nevertheless, I'm looking forward to reading more of Doyle's stories!

This came as some surprise: the youth of Sherlock Holmes! I always imagined him as the middle aged Sir Basil Rathbone. But no: this is the story of how Holmes and Watson met and in the first part it is mainly the story of Watson and his former life. Then he met Sherlock Holmes and they started their WG. But the real surprise can be found in the second part of the book, a story within the story and only known to the reader. I was so bewildered that I checked my ebook twice for assuming something went wrong and I read a part of a different book. This story within the story leads the reader in a totally different world, cruel and heartbreaking and it is the reason why the readers sympathy all goes to the murderer at the end. The book is rather a journey into a foreign society and a strangers heart than a detective novel, absolutely worth reading!

Well, I have to admit, I only started reading the Sherlock novels after having watched the BBC interpretation of Sherlock. While I still think of Benedict Cumberbatch and Martin Freeman while reading about Sherlock Holmes and John Watson, the TV series and Doyle's novels cannot be compared in the slightest aspects. Doyle's talents can be found in the mysteries he manages to come up with rather than his characterizations, creating a lot of free space for Mark Gatiss and Steven Moffat to come up with more sophisticated and interesting characters. This doesn't mean, however, that the Sherlock Holmes novels aren't interesting to read. "A Study in Scarlet", the first installment in A. Conan Doyle's "Sherlock Holmes" series, introduces its main protagonists Sherlock Holmes and John Watson, weaving an interesting mystery around a complex case while also including both suspense and humor. The second part surrounding the story about the Mormons, which was supposed to give a lot of background information on the murder mystery, felt long-winded due to its lacking ability to make me as the reader sympathize with its main characters, especially as Sherlock and John were missing for nearly the entire second part. It certainly wasn't bad, but may feel a little weaker than the scenes surrounding Sherlock and John in their investigations.

As much as I like the character of Sherlock Holmes in itself, I find this first story lacking. It could be argued that Doyle hadn’t even planned on turning this into a series, but still. The case in itself is entertaining enough (I’d give four stars), but the stint to Utah is unnecessarily long and boring, even if it does, in the end, explain the crime.

I had ambiguous impression until the end with this milestone in crime fiction. The beginning (When Sherlock met Watson) was very interesting. Funny, how close the modern TV serie is to the original. The book isn't a classic whodunnit thriller, which in itself isn't a problem. The story is not designed to compete with the detective and to develop suspicions about the offender. The eccentric main character enjoys this privilege, but why didn't the author stay true to this central element and let us share in Sherlock's genius the whole time? Instead, Sherlock pulls the murderer like a white rabbit out of a detective hat to the middle of the book. I thought the book might have been two crime stories when it suddenly went on in Utah. I was simply not interested in this tpart of the story. At the end the plot returns to London and the offender can then tell the story from his view that miraculously coincides with that of Sherlock. Conclusion: The structure of the story is almost a catastrophe for me, but because of the characters it was still a satisfying reading experience.

The book that introduced us to the most famous detective of them all. Holmes is sketched well but having seen the tv series, the introduction seems pretty ordinary. The story is simple and seems more of a first draft rather than the over polished versions like the ones created today. It ended up becoming a series but the space awarded to the back story of the murder confuses whether Arthur Conan Doyle started the book as a family chronicle a la Jeffery Archer style and stumbled onto his hero midway.

In dem Buch geht es im Wesentlichen darum, dass Sherlock Holmes und Dr. Watson sich kennenlernen, nachdem beide ein WG-Zimmer suchen. Sie ziehen zusammen und der dank des Krieges von sehr schwacher Gesundheit geprägte Watson bekommt mit, wie sein Mitbewohner ein Verbrechen löst. Dieses wiederum stellt eine gefundene Leiche in einem verlassenen Haus dar, mit einem in Blut geschmiertem Wort an der Wand. Ich war überrascht davon, wie angenehm zu lesen der Schreibstil ist. Klar, er ist altmodisch, schließlich ist das Buch schon 1887 erschienen, aber er ließ sich erstaunlich flüssig lesen. Generell habe ich das Buch, das in meiner Ausgabe auch nur etwa 160 Seiten umfasst, als eher kurzweilig empfunden. Es ist nicht lang, und dann ist es auch noch in zwei Stories aufgesplittet, sodass die Auflösung früher kommt als erwartet. Nach der eigentlichen Geschichte folgt nämlich nochmal die Hintergrundgeschichte zu dem Verbrechen, was ich teilweise als ein wenig redundant empfunden habe, was an sich aber auch ganz interessant sein kann. Watson ist an sich kein wirklich aktiver Charakter in diesem Buch. Er ist der Erzähler, aber ansonsten trägt er auch dank seines schwachen Zustands recht wenig zu dem Geschehen bin. Handeln tut eher Sherlock. Das Sherlock'sche Vorgehen ist dabei natürlich sehr unterhaltsam. Obwohl ich versuchte, mitzurätseln, gelang mir das nicht, auch weil essenzielle Details überhaupt erst am Ende enthüllt werden, sodass das eigentlich gar nicht so wirklich möglich ist.

Re-Read: I'm currently listening to the Definitive Collection of all the Sherlock Holmes stories by Stephen Fry and I enjoy it a lot. It's pretty convenient that I haven't read the books for a long time so I don't remember every detail. Sherlock Holmes is the best. Nothing more to say.