A Study in Scarlet - Sir Arthur Conan Doyle

In the past few months, I have become a fanatic of the BBC version of Sherlock Holmes that is shown on Masterpiece Mystery (PBS).  I was able to pick up the Blu-ray of series 1 for less than $20 and watched it with my husband.  This modern-day version is incredibly clever and a real joy to watch.  After watching a few of the episodes, my husband asked me how accurate they were portraying some of the characters.  Not really having any idea, I decided to do a little research and read the first installment of the Sherlock Holmes series, A Study in Scarlet.

I picked this one up from gutenberg.org and had to look up how to read it on my Kindle.  Once I had that figured out, there weren't really any issues reading the book, and this way it was free.

The book is written from the viewpoint of Dr. Watson.  He's a sickly man, back from war and looking for a roommate.  Once he meets Sherlock, he feels that they would get on well together.  Sherlock has an interesting job, but seems to know numerous things about unimportant matters, while neglecting common knowledge.

A murder has occurred in a vacant house and Holmes is called in on the case.  He examines the body, the surroundings and is able to draw conclusions that leave the other people in the room scratching their heads.  Eventually, the culprit is caught.

I was unused to the format that the author used for this book.  Once Sherlock has hold of the murderer, the book goes to Part II, which seems to have nothing to do with the rest of the story.  I was a little bummed, thinking that it was a separate story.  I had no knowledge of why the murder was committed or how Holmes had figured it out.  As I read on, however, I realized that this was the back story of what caused the murderer to do what he did.  Part III is the confession and conclusion to the story.

I don't like to reveal too much when it comes to mystery stories, so I won't say much about the story itself, but to inform the reader that there is a lot said about Mormons, and it isn't written in a positive light.  I felt more empathy with the murderer once I was about halfway through Part II and was both saddened and satisfied at the end.

With regards to the BBC version that I have been watching.  The first episode (of 3) of series 1 is called A Study in Pink and is very loosely connected to this story.  I enjoyed seeing the connections, my favorite being the conversation that Holmes and Watson have regarding the earth revolving around the sun.  I do recommend this TV series, but I would rate it as a mature PG.  It really is a clever adaptation.

The book itself is a unique story that is well worth the read.  It didn't take me long at all, and the entire plot is something that I've never read before.  I'm not normally a fan of straight mysteries, but as time goes on, I think that I could read through the whole Sherlock series.  Good Book!