The Complete Novels of Sherlock Holmes

Wow! Just wow!

Sherlock Holmes is a really famed character, he is the most popular detective in the pop culture and is the most portrayed movie character of all time. But I had never read any Sherlock Homes before and the only Sherlock Holmes movie I had watched was “Sherlock Holmes by RDJ”. Still this collection amazed me a lot!

Most people read these books for the great character of Sherlock Holmes but the thing which I liked the most was Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's storytelling. Plus there were some other great characters too, one character which isn't mentioned much in the list of great characters by Conan Doyle yet I liked him very much was the protagonist of the second half of the last novel (John MacMurdo).

The first novel, A Study in Scarlet is a good novel though it's first half was extremely boring. The transition to the second half was hard for me too but once I got into the second half, I realised it was much better than the first one.
The second novel, The Sign of the Four is not a bad novel but it is not as good as other novels in this collection, according to me. Also this book has some racist and sexist elements which make it unsuitable for some of today's readers, but I don't think that's something to criticize as it is also a product of it's time.
The third novel, The Hound of the Baskervilles doesn't begins just after the events of the second novel, they are seperated by a bunch of short stories which aren't included in this collection. That's actually a good thing because now the author doesn't waste time in strengthening the partnership of Holmes and Watson. This novel is the best one in the collection and can be even read as a standalone. It is in this very novel why I realised Sherlock Holmes is this popular.
The fourth novel, The Valley of Fear is also seperated from the third novel by a bunch of short stories. This novel's plot is similar to that of the first novel but better. Unlike previous novels, it connects to the short stories and mentions some of the characters which don't appear in novels but only in short stories like Professor Moriarty.

But to conclude, I'll say the book was amazing, the plus point of the book was story telling, so was its negative point Sir Doyle over explains the situation which isn't needed. But overall I can say every one can read this book even if you saw BBC Sherlock or Sherlock Holmes by RDJ you will find many interesting things.