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The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes

Everybody knows about Sherlock Holmes, a lot of people have seen the movie (Sherlock Holmes) starring Robert Downey Jr., but has anyone read the book by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle? Well, I just did and it was amazing. Holmes' powers of deduction are so amazing that you begin to want to be like him. He can tell where a person is from, what they are feeling, where they live, etc. just by looking at them and seeing a crease on their pants. It does take place in the 1800s, so it is a little old-fashioned, but it is a magnificent read. It isn't a book that you have to sit down and read in one sitting. It is narrated by Watson, Holmes' trusty sidekick and each chapter is a different case. So once you finish a chapter, you don't feel the urge to read more to find out what happens. For example, when Watson visits Holmes in the first chapter after not seeing him for a while, Holmes guesses that he has a clumsy servant girl and that he was recently outside in bad weather. Watson is surprised, so Holmes explains his deductions about him "'It is simplicity itself,' said he; 'my eyes tell me that on the inside of your left shoe, just where the firelight strikes it, the leather is scored by six almost parallel cuts. Obviously they have been caused by someone who has very carelessly scraped round the edges of the sole in order to remove crusted mud from it. Hence, you see, my double deduction that you had a particularly malignant boot-slitting specimen of the London slavey." It is not gory or bloody like crime novels nowadays, it is a much more elegantly written crime novel. If you think you know Sherlock Holmes (The Guinness World Records has consistently listed Sherlock Holmes as the "most portrayed movie character" with 75 actors playing the part in over 211 films), think again and read this book! (It's also free on the kindle). Rating: ★★★★★

The Informant

Millennium Trilogy