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Hello, I'm Jessie Quinn from cupsofbooks and today I'm going to be reviewing A Study
in Scarlet by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle.
[music]
Because I only finished two books in February,
I will not be posting Monthly Minis video. Instead you're gonna get two
separate videos that are going to have individual reviews for both books I read
in February.
We have reached the point in my review where I put down whatever I'm drinking
and start talking about the book.
So I'm gonna do that
To give you the synopsis off the back because I feel it will sum it up
better than I will:
[quoting] In A Study in Scarlet, Holmes and Watson's first mystery, the pair
are summoned to a south London house where they find a dead man whose contorted face
is a twisted mask of horror.
The body is unmarked by violence, but on the wall a mysterious word has been written
in blood.
The police are baffled by the circumstances of the crime, but when Sherlock Holmes
applies his brilliantly logical mind to the problem, he uncovers a tragic tale of
love and deadly revenge.
Dot dot dot.
Yes, I did just read out the punctuation. Honestly I enjoyed A Study in Scarlet
much more as a predecessor to the contemporary mystery novel than as
an actual mystery novel. A lot of the
sorta hallmarks of your
average mystery novel are not really in this one. For instance, there is really no
way of knowing who did it in this one until it's actually revealed by
Sherlock Holmes who had committed the crime. When sherlock reveals who did it, I
was sorta like, "Well, I would have had no idea who that person was!" One thing I didn't quite
expect from this novel is that
half of it is told from
Dr. John Watson's perspective on what's happening with the crime and
Sherlock in London and then the other half is sorta told through flashbacks that
are flashbacks from other characters that
are associated with the crime. Really liked all the stuff that was told from
Dr. John Watson's perspective. I really like the descriptions of Sherlock.
There were some really great quotes
in the sections that took place in London. But in the sections that took
place...
elsewhere (because I'm trying to be vague so I don't spoil anyone)... I just
didn't quite get as into it. It was a little bit too jarring when it happened and
all of the sudden we were in the flashbacks and that I was like, "Did I read the wrong page? What is
going on?"
I found Sherlock Holmes to be a lot more likeable than I think most adaptations portray
him and I don't know if maybe he gets a more...
difficult, shall we say, personality in the latter mysteries but in this novel I
thought he was a fairly likeable character. He has so much personality
that really comes through, even though I would argue that most the other
characters feel somewhat one-dimensional. I can't really tell Lestrade and Gregson,
the two police detectives, apart and
it's pretty clear that Watson is just sorta supposed to be the everyday person who
is our insider
look at the dazzling brilliance of Sherlock Holmes.
Sherlock Holmes and Dr. John Watson's interactions are more memorable than
Dr. Watson as an actual character.
Also I feel I should mention that this novel has gotten a lot of
criticism
because of its portrayal of the mormon religion.
I do agree that it does feel like Doyle didn't really know anything
about Mormonism and yet he tried to write
Mormonism into this mystery.
I gave A Study in Scarlet 4 out of 5 stars are my Goodreads. I definitely
enjoyed it and
I think Sherlock Holmes is a character I will want to revisit in
probably the near-ish future.