A Study in Scarlet By Sir Arthur Conan Doyle

 

A Study in Scarlet

By Sir Arthur Conan Doyle

This is my first experience with a Sherlock Homes story, and I don't know exactly what I was expecting, but it wasn't this.

A Study in Scarlet revolves around Watson's first meeting with Homes and the first case Watson witnesses Holmes solve. Holmes, in this story, is just 24 years old. I always expected him to be much older, but I imagine as the stories progress through time he'll age.

The case is about a man found murdered in a vacant house with no sign of injuries, but a bloody word written on the wall. Holmes, who has previously tried to convince his new housemate Watson that he can figure things out based on deduction, is called in by two local detectives who like to take credit for his work. Holmes figures out who killed the man and how, except for one clue which comes later upon the discovery of another murdered man, where the mode of the murder is revealed to him.

After this all takes place in the first part, the second part is centered in the western United States, where the reader is given the backstory of the three men involved, the two who were murdered and their killer. I was totally not expecting the story to take this turn. The rift between these men is illuminated and we follow them to Britain, where the murders take place and it is revealed how it was all done.

I really enjoyed this story. I liked the meeting between Watson and Holmes and Holmes's erratic and exuberant personality. He also seems to have periods of melancholy, which was interesting and I wonder if that will be explored in alter stories. His character was not at all what I was expecting. I think of Holmes as stuffy and clinical, but that is not how he appeared in this story, and I liked that surprise. It was also interesting that the story was structured in the way it was, with the western US portion included, which I also really liked. Stories set in the old west are interesting to me and I didn't look for it in a British detective story. Nice surprise!

This was a good first introduction to Holmes and it has me looking forward to the rest of the stories in the volume. I give A Study in Scarlet 4 stars.