Review – A Study in Scarlet by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
I promised I would post reviews of the books on my TBR Challenge list as I finished them, and I finished A Study in Scarlet last night, so here we go. My impressions:
The plot…
… was a little bit strange around the time we were magically transported to Utah (Mormons? What?) but nonetheless good. The mystery itself was obvious at times and didn’t make sense at others, but taken as a whole there were no overall problems with it – although I wouldn’t recommend it to someone who wants a mystery that is very difficult to unravel.
The characterizations…
… were my favorite thing about the novel. Holmes is a lot more vain and lazy than anyone likes to give him credit for. Overall all the characters, but Holmes and Watson especially, are well-rounded and amusing.
And speaking of amusing…
… this book was funny. If you are one of those horrible people who believes that anything written in the Victorian Era is bound to be dry and boring, read this. It will prove you wrong. Conan Doyle is, it seems, one of the incredibly witty Victorian authors rather than one of the incredibly dull ones.
Overall, I give it…
4/5 stars.
