Reviews

Estudi en escarlata, by Arthur Conan Doyle

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tthayer21's review against another edition

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adventurous emotional mysterious sad medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix

4.0

eds_writing_journey's review against another edition

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adventurous mysterious medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.0

A Study in Scarlet almost feels like two different stories. It is split into two parts, the first part following the first mystery of the Sherlock Holmes canon and the second explaining the murders motive, set in Salt Lake City, Utah. What I didn’t expect going into the Sherlock Holmes series was that it’d be told from the perspective of Watson as oppose to Sherlock or an omniscient narrator. The mystery itself was well done, however Sherlock is presented as almost a superhuman detective, to the point where his logic in solving the mystery and ease in doing so seems to be tailored by Conan Doyle to be conveniently easy for him and this damaging the legitimacy of the murder and police work to be believable. Overall, I much preferred the first parts detective work to the second part of story, but I was pleasantly surprised by my introduction to Conan-Doyle’s work.

bastibe's review against another edition

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4.0

My first Sherlock Holmes book, and I really didn't know what to expect. What immediately struck me as utterly fascinating was the modernity of this world. Even though set before cars or ubiquitous electricity and data, this world feels surprisingly similar to the experience of our current world.

Besides that, the story was gripping enough, although not exactly what I had expected. There was very little mystery to be figured out by the reader. Instead, we are merely along for the ride with Holmes.

Still, overall the book was absolutely fascinating in many aspects and I couldn't put it down. But I do hope that later books will meander a bit less, and develop the main characters a bit further.