Melissa Reads Sherlock: A Study in Scarlet and The Sign of Four (Reviews)

 What can I say about Sherlock that's not been said before? He's pompous, arrogant, and 99.9% of the time absolutely correct! I have always wanted to read these stories, but always was put off by false ideas that they were "too dry" or that I would be annoyed as hell by Sherlock's personality. I've watched the TV series based on the character and loved them, but for some reason I always figured that Sherlock in book form wouldn't click with me. I was totally, completely wrong! 

I started with A Study in Scarlet. Where it all begins....We meet John Watson and learn a bit about him first. Then we're introduced to the man himself..Sherlock Holmes. We see how they get to know each other, sus out each other's personalities and how they can work together. I loved this part of the story very much! You get a taste of how incredibly intelligent both characters are in their own ways, and how ridiculous they are as well. 

The plot goes like this. There's a murder, regular ole normal coppers are stumped. In swoops SH with his main man John to help out. They poke around, do some think thunking then BOOM! Murder solved, murderer caught. Simple? Easy peezy? That part yes, but it's the WHY that made this fun. 

You get a little "flash back to the past" that explains the murderer's motive. A little backstory for the wee murder plot to make sense. I did so enjoy this bit. At the time I was like, okay I get it but how will this roll around and connect back to the "present" with the murder and murderer, but it did. It did very well. 

So my first foray into the tales of the Baker Street Bros, kept me happily reading along. Good job and good story! 

I gave it a 4 star on Goodreads. 

Now onto The Sign of  Four

Fans of the Bernadict Bumberbutton series will recognize a familiar name/face, one Mary Morstan. Well Miss Mary stumbles into the BSB (baker street bros..I'm totally calling them that now) bachelor pad needing some help. Her father went missing 10 years ago, and she can't find him. After a bit of years, she starts to get a single big ass pearl in the mail. She can't explain it but she knows it's in connection with her father's disappearance, so who does she call for help? You guessed it! Mr. "I LOVE COCAINE" himself, Sherlock Holmes and his buddy John. 

Now, this was a good story, but the mystery was a bit lacking for me. It was solid as per usual, but it just didn't have the same ooomph as ASIS, to me.  I did enjoy getting a better view into Sherlock's personality. He's got flaws...oh whew boy does this man have flaws! I did think that John and Mary's burgeoning relationship was sweet and cute. I couldn't help but put Martin Freeman and Amanda Abbington's faces in my brain when I was reading it. It was adorbs! 

The mystery aspect wasn't the shining star of this story, but the character development and the addition of Toby the wonderdog push this one up from my original 3 stars to 4 stars on goodreads.