Complete works of Sir. Arthur Conan Doyle - A report

For my book report, I read Sherlock Holmes: The Complete Novels and Stories, Volume 1 by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. The publisher is Bantam Classics. It doesn’t seem to have a copyright date, or at least inside of the book, probably because Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, who died over a century ago, never copyrighted the stories. It has 1,059 pages.

Sherlock Holmes is the main character of all the stories. He is very tall and has very keen powers of deduction and observation. It can even seem as if he can read minds because he can observe the expressions of a person. He uses these powers to solve various mysteries that would never been solved without his help. He actions show how he is felling at the time, though only his friends would be able to understand them. One example is that when a case is going badly, he is always running around, smokes incessantly, eats at strange hours, and does many other strange things. Holmes also has a brother who is 7 years older and named Mycroft who has even keener powers of observation and deduction.

The setting is between the late 1880s to the early 1900s in London, England.

This book has many different stories about Sherlock Holmes. It is divided into 4 parts. It starts with the story A Study in Scarlet, where Dr. Watson is introduced and meets Sherlock Holmes. They solve their first mystery together. It is a very strange mystery, because a rich man was killed, but nothing was stolen. The word RACHE was written above the body in blood. However, there was no injury on the body. A Sherlock Holmes point out that rache is German for revenge. However, Holmes solves the mystery. The next story is The Sign of Four. When this mystery is solved, Dr. Watson gets engaged to Holmes’ client.

The next division of the book is The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes. Most of the stories in this division are mysteries that Holmes’ solved before he met Dr. Watson. Some of the mysteries are such as The Yellow Face and The “Gloria Scott”. The last story in this division is The Final Problem. In this one, Holmes’ appears to die, but takes the biggest crime lord in London, Professor Moriarty.

In The Return of Sherlock Holmes, Dr. Watson discovers that Holmes didn’t die, but was hiding from the late Professor Moriarty’s crime empire, which saw him hide after killing Moriarty. By the end of the first story in this division, Sherlock Holmes is safe from the gang because he captures the top member of the leftover group.

The last story in Volume 1 is The Adventure of the Second Stain, where Holmes averts an international crisis.

This book is like Agatha Christie’s books because both series are about strange mysteries and Christie’s characters Poirot and Miss Marple are like Holmes.
*Read page 781

I recommend this book highly to anyone who likes mysteries. On a scale of 1-5, I rate it a 6.