The Great Adventures of Sherlock Holmes

by Arthur Conan Doyle

From the strange case of 'The Red-Headed League' to the extraordinary tale of 'The Engineer's Thumb', Sherlock Holmes and his assistant Dr Watson grapple with treachery, murder, and ingenious crimes of all kinds. But no case is too challenging for the immortal detective's unique power of deduction.
With an introduction by Joseph Delaney, author of the Spooks books, and containing child-friendly endnotes.

Genres: Classics, Mystery, Fiction, Short Stories, Crime, Adventure, Historical Fiction

304 pages, Hardcover

First published April 15, 1976

About the author

Sir Arthur Ignatius Conan Doyle was a Scottish writer and physician. He created the character Sherlock Holmes in 1887 for A Study in Scarlet, the first of four novels and fifty-six short stories about Holmes and Dr. Watson. The Sherlock Holmes stories are milestones in the field of crime fiction.

Doyle was a prolific writer. In addition to the Holmes stories, his works include fantasy and science fiction stories about Professor Challenger, and humorous stories about the Napoleonic soldier Brigadier Gerard, as well as plays, romances, poetry, non-fiction, and historical novels. One of Doyle's early short stories, "J. Habakuk Jephson's Statement" (1884), helped to popularise the mystery of the brigantine Mary Celeste, found drifting at sea with no crew member aboard.

Reviews

[₊‧ ୨୧mollie_ anneliese⸆⸉(kai azer’s version)₊‧ ୨୧ · Rating 3 out of 5]

3. 85\5 ⭐️

This was good! It was also the best out of my RTA books i've read so far. It was very entertains (for the most part) and Sherlock is so inspiring!

My favorite of the mysteries was "The Golden Pince-Nez"!

Overall a good read!

[Dorothée · Rating 2 out of 5]

Unfortunately this book made for passive reading. I usually love detective novels as they're engaging to read and I really enjoy trying to figure out the case as the book goes along and come up with the solution myself. However, the vast majority of Sherlock Holmes' stories do not allow for this, especially because Holmes' epiphanies almost always arise from visual clues - something the reader does not have access to due to the stories being written from Watson's perspecive. And unlike Agatha Christie's detective novels where much of the mystery is solved by analysis of dialogue and matching up of events, these tales rely heavily on what goes on in Holmes' experiences. Watson isn't around Holmes all of the times and seems to be a rather bland character who does not add much to the story apart from being Holmes' soundboard. The resolutions therefore are often sudden and make the reader's attempt to solve the case by themselves futile.

[BooksNCrannies · Rating 4 out of 5]

Join Sherlock Holmes on some of his most intriguing adventures.

A great collection of Sherlock Holmes stories. I would recommend this volume to anyone looking for a good representative sample of these intriguing mysteries.... If you deduced that that is the end of my review, then you are correct — Why make it any longer than it needs to be? 🤭

📚📚📚📚📚📚📚📚📚📚📚📚📚📚📚📚📚📚

📖 BOOK BREAKDOWN 📖 (Overall: 4/5)
Fundamentals: (1=worst; 5=best)
— 📈 Plot: NA*
— 📝 Writing: 3.5/5
— 👥 Characters: 3/5
Content: (0=none; 1=least; 5=most)
— 🤬 Language: 1/5
—a few uses of God's name in vain
— ⚔️ Violence: 0/5
— ⚠️ S*xual: 0/5

Random Comments :

— This specific Sherlock Holmes collection does not contain any stories in which Holmes uses drugs.

— *I don't give any plot rating because, rather than being one complete story, this book features many individual stories; thus no plot rating is given.

[Stefan Hull · Rating 4 out of 5]

Delightful and a helpful and fun tool for teaching pre-teen boys about paying attention to detail.

[Caro · Rating 4 out of 5]

Interesting, creative, imaginative, detailed, and fun to read. Definitely keeps the interest and has you turning pages to see what's gonna happen next. Colorful characters, curious mysteries, fun antics and bantering, and simple yet complex answers. Can you figure it out before the end? ;) Enjoyable to read and contains a few shorter stories so it's not too much at once. Great for the youngsters and adults alike. Totally Enjoy!

[Anika · Rating 4 out of 5]

Loved. So cozy. So many nice interesting big words

[Claudia Vaughn · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was a series of short stories with some much more interesting than others. Holmes can be quite condescending and that irritated me throughout the book. The first and the last short stories were my favorites! “A Scandal in Bohemia” and “The Adventure of the Copper Beeches”

[Julia · Rating 3 out of 5]

*3.5

[Lena-Alice Harrison · Rating 4 out of 5]

What a nice and delightful collection of short stories.

[Casey AE · Rating 3 out of 5]

A collection of Sherlock Holmes stories. I've had this book on the shelf for years and never got around to reading it. I enjoyed puzzling out the different mysteries.

[C · Rating 3 out of 5]

Overall the stories were interesting, intriguing, suspenseful and complicated, which I enjoyed. But it was disappointing that most of the stories did not give the reader the clues necessary to solve the case on their own.

The Solitary Cyclist: 2 stars. It was okay, but the outcome could have been a little less predictable and a little more interesting.
Charles Augustus Milverton: 4 stars. I really liked it. It was so action-packed and suspenseful and intriguing. I loved how they snuck into his house and had to hide behind the curtains when he came into the room. It totally stressed me out! And Milverton was a tough character. It was cool to see someone who was a match for Holmes.
Black Peter: 3 stars. I liked the little plot twists and how developed the story and characters were despite it only being about a 30 page story.
The Golden Pince-Nez: 3 stars. I liked that the mystery had enough factors to it that my mind could run wild with theories of who might have committed the crime and why and how. The actual outcome ended up being completely unpredictable which hasn't been uncommon with these short stories but sometimes tended to be a little frustrating for readers like me who want to try and solve the crime ourselves. I did love the ending, though. So dramatic!
The Priory School: 4 stars. It was interesting and complicated and allowed the reader to come up with so many theories (one of mine ended up being half-right). There were so many elements and characters which I liked. There was a little suspense because if felt like you couldn't trust anyone. It only lost a star because that poor German schoolmaster never got justice after his murder.
The Beryl Coronet: 3 stars. It wasn't very suspenseful or anything, but there were enough clues that allowed me to half figure out who the guilty party was, so I did like that.
The Engineer's Thumb: 4 stars. It was a riveting and captivating story that kept me on the edge of my seat. Would've been 5 stars if Holmes had caught the criminals. It seemed ridiculous that they didn't find out anything at all. Zero closure. But the engineer's story about how the woman warned him, and how he almost died in the machine, and all of that was so scary and exciting to read about. It would make a good movie.
The Red-Headed League: 2 stars. The ending saved it, it made it an interesting story because of it, but actually reading the story itself was pretty boring.

Average rating: 3.125 stars

[Waniya Aneel · Rating 4 out of 5]

Had to read for school, didn't disappointed but was hard back then (5th grade)

[Meg · Rating 5 out of 5]

Arthur Conan Doyle's iconic master of logic and detective calculation comes through time and again in the well-known and beloved mysteries of Sherlock Holmes. With Doyle's unmatched atmospheric evocation of Victorian London, unforgettable leads, and imaginative mysteries, Sherlock Holmes is delightful.

[Emilie Guan · Rating 5 out of 5]

Extremely delightful to read even though a few of the short stories don’t quite hit the amazing mark. Compared to another anthology I’ve read of Sherlock Holmes, these seemed a bit less clever, but overall it was still fun reading them.

[Erlin]

Sherlock Holmes...hhhmmm...Sinichi Kudo...hhhmmm...

[Nathan Whatley · Rating 4 out of 5]

Another Puffin classic success. I love the size, look, print and price of the books in this series. It makes reading Arthur Conan Doyle that much more enjoyable.

[Willy Akhdes · Rating 3 out of 5]

As always, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle is presenting a series of thrilling stories that rouse the curiosity about what it would be the end of the enigma that he shows at the beginning.

[NR · Rating 5 out of 5]

5
(updated mar15 - don't have start+fin dates rn)
Exactly what I meant when I said I wanted to read Sherlock! This book consists of 8 short stories about different Sherlock Holmes cases. I'd watched the newest show but never consumed any other Sherlock content, even though it always interested me. These were really sweet (not necessarily literally, I guess I mean short?) lil tales that gave me a good taste of Conan Doyle's writing style. I like both Holmes and Watson (in terms of their characterization) and I think the stories are written in a sufficiently succinct way so that I understood but wasn't swamped by the case details. God, doesn't a girl want to be Sherlock! I think my favorite story from this book was probably "Charles Augustus Milverton", just because it seemed so classic Holmes. "The Solitary Cyclist" was also great, and "The Red-Headed League" was funny.
Overall definitely recommended :).

[Grace RS · Rating 4 out of 5]

While I am not a big fan of mystery novels, I did enjoy this read. The language is beautiful, and it is always fun to see the mystery unravel. The last two stories were probably my favorite of the collection. I also took delight in his descriptions of people, especially the criminals always described with some animal trait.

I felt saddened for Sherlock as I read through this series: he was lonely and fighting against the ennui of his existence through his detective work (280).

My concern, however, about these mystery stories is that there is no real way for the reader to think ahead and figure the mystery out, because the story is told through Watson's perspective and not Sherlock's. With Watson's limited perspective, the readers are missing gaps of information until Sherlock resolves any conundrum.

[Stephanie Hartley · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is such a nice, easy summer read that you can skim through in a couple of days. It's the first Arthur Conan Doyle novel that I've ever read and I definitely see why it's made such a long-lasting impression in the world! Sherlock Holmes is English literature's first detective who relies on his intuition to solve crimes rather than clues. If you're a fan of crime novels, then this is a must-read.

[Anthony Herzog · Rating 4 out of 5]

Really fun stories, but it's hard to constantly be given exposition for a new adventure right after the last one. Sherlock is very smart, who knew? It was cool to read the Charles Augustus Milverton story after watched the "Sherlock" episode of the same plot.

I loved how different they all were from each other. Made every story fresh.

Also I felt like I'd already read this book... every story felt vageuly familiar 🤷‍♂️.

[Srijith Jagdish · Rating 3 out of 5]

A decent compilation of Sherlock Holmes short stories...

A good way to start before getting into the more elaborate stories...helps a new reader ease into Arthur Conan Doyle's writing style...

While the stories themselves are not path breaking in terms of suspense...they are fast paced enough to keep you engrossed...

Regards,

Sri

[Fabs · Rating 4 out of 5]

Simply classic 🤩
I have to admit that initially it was hard to adjust to the style and also the several plots. The stories, in my opinion, are not as mysterious and as captivating as one might be used to from modern novels, but they all have character. Overall I am eager to immerse myself more into the world of Holmes and Watson! 😊

[Noah The · Rating 4 out of 5]

This collection of 8 shirt stories is amazing. I particularly like the short story PRIORY SCHOOL, which is equally mysterious and intriguing. Although the language will not appeal many young readers, those who are interested or can understand the language will enjoy the book. Sherlock Holmes, after all, is one of our most favorite fictional character.

[isabel · Rating 3 out of 5]

⭐️⭐️⭐️

This took my an embarrassing amount of time to finish, but in my defence, I was really really busy and this didn’t have enough to pull me out of my partial grind to read it I guess. However, Sherlock Holmes deserves respect and a basic “minimum” rating, thus. So ready to leap right out of this book slump🦁

[Darinda · Rating 4 out of 5]

Eight Sherlock Holmes stories. Nice selection of Sherlock's adventures. Entertaining.

1. The Solitary Cyclist
2. Charles Augustus Milverton
3. Black Peter
4. The Golden Pince-Nez
5. The Priory School
6. The Beryl Coronet
7. The Engineer's Thumb
8. The Red-Headed League

[Maha · Rating 5 out of 5]

An amazing book and God! I love Sherlock Holmes and his witty humour along with Dr.watson and his "how Holmes figured this all out' nature.I loved how they both got together throughout the book and solved all those cases.

[Cat · Rating 2 out of 5]

Good if you want a light summer read. The reader takes no part in trying to solve the cases though. Sherlock just announces how the crime was committed, often using information that was never mentioned.

[Jennie Koh · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book has amazing stories of Sherlock Holmes adventures with Dr. Watson.

[Baclofen Gliddon · Rating 3 out of 5]

Sherlock should have consumed more cocaine.