Friends

This is my review of the book “The Sign of Four” by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, which I listened to recently, as a librivox recording. This is a story that portrays Sherlock Holmes in our modern eyes, in a less than favourable light with his extensive drug taking, though at the time it was a perfectly acceptable thing to do. Similar to taking an alcoholic drink nowadays.

A young lady asks Sherlock to investigate what happened to her father when he disappeared 10 years earlier. The story slowly reveals a very complex plot of stolen treasure beyond compare, corrupt prison guards, double crossing and a secret pact among four convicts. Hence the name of the story.
Added to this Sherlock’s friend Dr Watson falls in love.

It is a good story but the fact that the last chapter has Sherlock going into great detail how all the elements have come together to form the whole, explains how complex it is, and certainly there is no way the mystery could be worked out as the reader went along.

As each new twist and turn was revealed we played guess the outcome, and sadly did not manage to get it right once. This was an enjoyable story, though very complex – not one for listening to when driving through a city, but one for an open road with little traffic. That being said well worth listening to.

This was book 31 week 24 fiction 28 (audio book 7) non fiction 3.

Friends this is my review of the book The Lost World by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, which I listened to recently as a Librivox recording.

This is the original story, that inspired Jurassic Park and King Kong. It is all about a strange tropical land in South America, that is trapped on a basaltic plateau, where time has stood still. The flora and fauna are mainly from a bygone age, normally found in the fossil record, but here they are alive.

Professor George Edward Challenge, found a sketch book that revealed these living dinosaurs, but when he tries to tell his colleagues about this they do not believe him. So an official investigation is launched to determine if his claims are true. This is the amazing story of what they found.

Not only do they find the world but due to a local guides treachery, they seem to be trapped on this amazing land. But all is not peace and light. They find an ongoing war between an ape like creature and local indians, who are locked in a bitter deadly war to control the land.

The apes throw captured local indians off the top of a cliff onto spikes below killing them for sport, so all does not go well for our heroes when they are trapped by the apes. But to say more would spoil the story.. Can our heroes escape from the apes, then they have to find a way out of the land without being killed. Finally there is the mystery of the sparkly treasure in the blue clay, and does true love win? Well that would be telling.

All I will say is that I am amazed that the final section of the book, it is very different to any film of TV show that I have watched.

This was an enjoyable way of passing the miles on the Motorway, and was book 9 week 6 fiction 9 (audio book 3) non fiction 0

Friends this is my review of the Return of Holmes by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, which I listened to as an audio book from Librivox http://librivox.org/the-return-of-sherlock-holmes-by-sir-arthur-conan-doyle/ , whilst making cards for orders for Cards with a Message

It is a collection of thirteen adventures, first published in 1905. Sir Arthur bring the great detective back and during the course of the thirteen tales, causes Watson to faint in the Empty House, demonstrates that cryptography is elementary in the Dancing Men), and gets engaged in Charles Augustus Milverton. He also manages to prevent a war in the in the final chapter the adventure of the second stain. This adventure also has Watson's statement that Holmes has retired, and forbids him to publish any more stories. Shame really as they are good fun.

This was book 18 week 13 fiction 16 (3 on audio) non fiction 2

This is my review of the audio book Memoirs of Holmes by Arthur Conan Doyle. The version I listened to was a librivox  one. There are 12 short stories in the collection and the last one is where Sherlock confronts his arch enemy Professor Moriarty. After a chase across London and then the continent they end up in Switzerland where they stay at Meringen. From there they fatefully decide to take a walk which will include a visit to Reichenbach Falls, a local natural wonder. Once there, a boy appears and hands Watson a note, saying that there is a sick Englishwoman back at the hotel who wants an English doctor. Holmes realises at once it is a hoax although he does not say so. Watson goes to see about the patient, leaving Holmes alone.

When he reaches the Englischer Hof, the innkeeper has no knowledge of any sick Englishwoman. Realizing at last that he has been deceived, Watson rushes back to Reichenbach Falls but finds no one there, although he does see two sets of footprints going out onto the muddy dead end path with none returning. There is also a note from Holmes, explaining that he knew the report Watson was given to be a hoax and that he is about to fight Moriarty, who has graciously given him enough time to pen this last letter. Watson sees that towards the end of the path there are signs that a violent struggle has taken place and there are no returning footprints. It is all too clear Holmes and Moriarty have both fallen to their deaths down the gorge while locked in mortal combat. Heartbroken, Dr. Watson returns to England.

The day after I listened to this I watched Michael Portillo's Great continental railway journey, where he ended up in Switzerland, and went to see the Reichenbach Falls, which is now a major attraction having been made more famous by the Holmes story.

An enjoyable listen making the miles traveled go by quickly. This was book 42 week 30 fiction 40 (12 on audio) non fiction 2 

Summary -This is my review of the book The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes by by Arthur Conan Doyle 

I listened to this as a Librivox  recording over the last few days whilst I have been coding a website. One of the enjoyable things is that evidently over the years I have either heard, seen or read some of these stories before, as I was able to sort of recognise the stories as I listened to them. It then became a must to have guessed the result before the reveal and get points if I got it right. (I got more right than wrong).

It is claimed that the title character of Sherlock Holmes was named after famous American poet Oliver Wendell Holmes. The stories were originally published in the Strand Magazine from July 1891 to June 1892. They were then collected together into a book of 12 stories as The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes.

I found these an enjoyable distraction and will listen to some more. This was book 38 week 26 fiction 36 (11 on audio) non fiction 2