Solve it Like Sherlock: Test Your Powers of Reasoning Against Those of the World's Most Famous Detective

by Stewart Ross

If you’ve always fancied yourself a bit of a Sherlock Holmes, there’s no better way to test yourself than against these ingenious puzzles.In this intriguing book, Stewart Ross presents 25 new Sherlock Holmes cases and challenges you to pit your powers of deduction against those of the Great Detective. Full of the atmosphere and ambience of 221b Baker Street, you’ll feel like you’ve stepped back into the pages of Arthur Conan Doyle … except, this time, with the chance to prove you’re a match for the super sleuth.Each case provides all the evidence you’ll need to crack it, provided you’re sharp enough to pick up on all the clues, with challenges from codebreaking to lateral thinking, memory to logic … and of course, how Sherlock came up with the solutions can be found at the back of the book in case you’re feeling more like Watson than Holmes. The detective managed to solve 24 out of the 25 cases in this book – perhaps you can go one better.

Genres: Mystery, Nonfiction

257 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 1, 2018

About the author

Stewart Ross has written more than 300 titles, fiction and non-fiction, for children and adults. Many are about (or inspired by) history. He lives near Canterbury, England.

Reviews

[Bill · Rating 4 out of 5]

Knowing my love of all things related to Sherlock Holmes my daughter gave me this highly entertaining collection of puzzles.
This is by far the best selection of mysteries set around the world of Holmes & Watson that I've read. Instead of just giving a one or two page puzzle vaguely connected to Holmes, Stewart Ross actually puts together a decent collection of original original short stories & challenges the reader to solve the crimes. Thankfully he provides solutions at the back of the book, although I was proud that I solved quite a few of them myself.

[Marie · Rating 5 out of 5]

Der etwas andere „Sherlock Holmes“-Roman

Die Idee hinter diesem Buch hat mir super gut gefallen und war genau mein Fall, weil man (im Gegensatz zu den originalen Geschichten von Sir Arthur Conan Doyle) tatsächlich alle notwendigen Details bekommt und den Fall quasi größtenteils selbst lösen kann. Auch wenn ich mir mal mehr, mal weniger Zeit für die Falllösung genommen habe, war es jedes Mal wieder spannend und hat dazu noch unglaublich Spaß gemacht. Die Fälle sind auch jeweils nicht zu lang, sondern genau richtig und dadurch super angenehm zu lesen. Sie sind im typischen Sherlock-Stil aufgemacht und formuliert, als wäre es eine eigene kleine Erzählung, und auch die Rahmengeschichte des Autors zur Entstehung des Buches fand ich wirklich süß. Die Lösungen sind durchaus machbar - wenn auch nicht immer in allen Details vorher zu erahnen, wodurch es stets spannend bleibt.

Alles in allem ist es viel mehr eine Sammlung an Erzählungen als ein reines Rätselbuch, diese Mischung hat mir wirklich gut gefallen und das Leseerlebnis war etwas ganz besonderes. Für alle Fans von Sherlock Holmes ist dieses Buch wirklich einen Blick wert, egal ob für sich selbst oder als kleines Geschenk für einen Fan.

Vielen Dank an das Bloggerportal und den Anaconda-Verlag für das Rezensionsexemplar!

[Debbie Swanson · Rating 5 out of 5]

Loved this book!! Have wanted to read a book like this for sometime so I could test my detective skills. I did pretty good!! For the stories that you had to figure out ‘who dunnit’ I got most of them...though not always arriving at the conclusion by Sherlock’s exact line of logic. For the stories that you knew who did it but were asked how did Holmes know I did really well...again I figured out at least the main reason he knew who it was but not always all of his clues.

Would love to read another book like this!!

[Elisa Luggeri · Rating 4 out of 5]

I found this a refreshing and light hearted easy read. Very enjoyable. The book format is very clever, engaging the reader to think for themselves before reading the solutions. And a great insight into the magnificent mind of the legendary Sherlock Holmes and his relationship with his friend Watson.

[Tina · Rating 5 out of 5]

I really enjoyed solving puzzles with Holmes.

[Johanna · Rating 1 out of 5]

I was enjoying this set of case puzzles until I came upon the chapter where the author conflates homosexuality and pedarasty, a horrendous stereotype.

Others aren't actually solvable by the reader without very specialized knowledge. It's as though the author wanted to write pastiches but didn't want to bother with the setting and characterization -- which, to be fair, he says at the beginning when setting up the premise of having found Watson's case notes.

[Moshita · Rating 3 out of 5]

Stewart Ross has written 25 new Sherlock stories. He claims in the introduction that these are taken from John Watson’s personal archives of the cases, clearly marked OTP (Offensive to Public) and PS (Politically Sensitive).

The premise of the book Solve It Like Sherlock: Test Your Powers Of Reasoning Against Those Of The World’s Most Famous Detective is that you try and solve the case using deduction and logic like Sherlock would. You are not rushing against time here, you are only rushing against how long your interest will last.

The cases, spread over 200 pages, have their solutions outlined in the last 50 pages of the book. Some cases are straightforward and you can see the solution within the first three pages. Others, well… Sherlock has the advantage of knowing the names of the French royal family and languages from across the world. You just know that footprints in the snow can be faked as can blood, thanks to all the crime drama shows you’ve watched.

The enduring appeal of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s detective with his deerstalker hat and smoking pipe is his penchant for solving cases entirely by observation and deduction. Add a sense of entitlement with an unhealthy sense of arrogance and a proclivity to dabble in narcotics in order to solve the case – and let’s not forget the help of individuals on the other side of the law – and you have a detective that speaks to every rebellious cell in your body.

Does the book capture that? Not completely. The initial excitement of solving the cases dissipates over the 200 pages of cases. And surely, no mystery is solved in the same way by every detective.

The writing also misses key mystery-appeal, a necessity in every whodunnit, but, maybe, it is meant only as a leisurely read, where you don’t have to tax your brain with complex logical reasoning. Still, the sense of urgency that crime writers weave into their words is surely missed. To be honest, I intermittently set the book aside for a few hours that stretched into days before skipping some cases to finish it. It helped that the weekend was approaching.

So then, pick this book up for a lazy perusal, lower your expectations from the world’s greatest detective, and, then, just maybe, you will enjoy this book.

[Anne Clarence (The Reading Life) · Rating 5 out of 5]

As a Sherlock Holmes fan, I felt like I just struck gold with this book.

I think all murder mystery readers to some degree can relate to this, and that is at one point, you want to participate. You want to put all those "deductive skills" you've collected reading these works to use, and if you ever get it right you get SUCH an amazing sense of achievement.

I cannot more STRONGLY recommend this book to all Sherlock Holme fans out there. This book contains short stories/scenarios that you see in the Holme stories and is specifically designed to test your knowledge and deduction skills. Not only does this feel like Holme extras but it's also a phenomenal opportunity for practice (by the way it has answer sheets/explanations in the back as well so don't worry).

[Bhavna Soni · Rating 5 out of 5]

Nice

[Tabish · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting read

[Stephen · Rating 2 out of 5]

Well, I wasn't very successful in solving the Holmes' crimes. Only one was obvious to me. It was a quick fun read nevertheless.

[Eleonora · Rating 3 out of 5]

Overall, a fast reading. The stories are very short and the solutions are predictable. Nothing like the original Sherlock.

[Isabel Chang · Rating 4 out of 5]

Gotta say it was kinda disapointing.

[Donna Wright · Rating 2 out of 5]

Predictable.

[Dean · Rating 2 out of 5]

The French translation was riddled with mistakes and incoherences, which dampened my enjoyment greatly.

[Maria Mario · Rating 3 out of 5]

War okay, hat mich aber nicht vom Hocker gehauen

[King Senpai · Rating 4 out of 5]

I loveee this book

[Hermioneginny · Rating 3 out of 5]

Se uno scrittore trovasse 25 casi mai pubblicati dal dottor Watson, sapreste risolverli prima di Sherlock Holmes?

Carino, in alcuni casi la spiegazione è un po' troppo tirata, in altri prevedibile, ma comunque piacevoli da leggere.