The Adventures & Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes

A truly great collection of short stories. The stereotype is that all Sherlock Holmes stories follow a rigid murder-mystery formula, but this could not be further from the truth. What makes The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes such a pleasure to read is the *variety* - aside from each story revolving around a mystery, they are all absolutely unique. There is the traditional whodunnit of 'The Boscombe Valley Mystery', the Christmassy 'The Blue Carbuncle', the Jamesian (MR James, that is) 'The Speckled Band' and the utterly horrifying 'The Engineer's Thumb'. The tone of the stories varies terrifically as well, from the charming and forgiving 'The Blue Carbuncle' to the anger of 'The Five Orange Pips'; stories take place from the scenic countryside of 'The Boscombe Valley Mystery' to the opium dens of London's dockyards in 'The Man With the Twisted Lip', both captured with the same level of detail (only to be expected when the narrator is the best friend of England's finest detective!).