Imme van Gorp's Reviews > A Study in Scarlet

|| 3.5 stars ||

This was very unlike what I expected it to be, or at least, parts of it were.
The book is divided into two parts, and the first part did fit exactly what I thought the whole book would be like. We see Dr. Watson and Mr. Holmes meet, we see Watson being in awe and wonder at Holmes’ peculiar and genius personality, we see Holmes get involved in a mysterious and strange murder-case, and finally we see him easily solve the case with his own brand of deduction skills.
Opposingly, the second part completely abandons these two characters and dives into the past to give a detailed, intricate and tense backstory of the murderer and why he has decided to commit his crimes.
It is only at the very end that everything is tied back together again and we find out the full story at the same time as Dr. Watson.

Personally, I thought the first part was a little simplistic and nowhere near as smart or distinctive as I thought it would be. I wished we could have seen more of Sherlock’s actual deduction work, but considering the story is narrated by Watson, and he only gets short and simplified summaries of Sherlock’s deductions after the fact it has already taken place, this wasn’t the case at all. It was still fun and easy to read, but not as special as I was hoping it to be.

When I got around to the second part of this book I was honestly quite mystified and confused. At first, I didn’t have a clue as to what was happening or what I was even reading. However, once I started to realise that I was reading the backstory to the crime of the first part, I became more interested and eventually found myself very intrigued. It was actually a really good story that tug on my heartstrings more than once.
I especially found myself feeling the highest respect for John Ferrier and his perseverance in wanting to protect his adoptive daughter against the horrors of Mormon culture and against having to become one of the many brides in a polygamous harem. He would rather die than have his little girl be tied to these monsters, and it was admirable to say the least. Jefferson Hope, of course, also acquired my respect for all that he did and I honestly couldn’t help but feel that the men who were murdered didn’t quite get enough compared to all that they were guilty of. I’d have wished to see them die more gruesomely if it were up to me.
All in all, it was actually quite a tragic story with no happy ending for any of the good people involved.

All this said, I do think it is important to note that I believe this is one of those very rare cases where the tv adaptation is far better than the original text. I mean, the BBC’s Sherlock is seriously one of my favourite tv series of all time, while this was certainly not one of the best books I’ve ever read. Sure, it was still really good, and all the credits for the premise of the story and the idea of the characters should go completely to this, so I am glad I have read it, but still, the BBC’s adaptation just does it so much better. Therefore, if you’re only interested in exploring one version of Sherlock’s adventures, I’d recommend watching that instead. For die-hard fans (like me), however, this felt like an extra little bonus to read!