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The Return of Sherlock Holmes - Volume II
No case is too slight for the mental powers of the great detective! In this second selection from The Return of Sherlock Holmes, a young girl is stalked by a solitary cyclist; the dancing men hieroglyphics found in Norfolk lead to a sinister connection with America; Holmes enters the murky world of high society blackmail when he encounters Charles Augustus Milverton; and he searches for an abducted student from the Priory school. As always, his friend Dr. Watson is with him to assist and chronicle these cases.
Audio CD
First published February 7, 1994
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About the author
Arthur Conan Doyle
15.7k books24.2k followersSir 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.
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.
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Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews
February 9, 2020
A los que nos gustan las novelas policiales, disfrutamos de Sherlock Holmes, no?
Es un clásico. La resolución de los casos es simple y con situaciones naive para los ojos del s.XXI, pero viniendo de la pluma de Sir Arthur, se disfruta y mucho.
Es un clásico. La resolución de los casos es simple y con situaciones naive para los ojos del s.XXI, pero viniendo de la pluma de Sir Arthur, se disfruta y mucho.
November 3, 2012
I thought I was going to be rating all the Sherlock Holmes audiobooks with only one star (thereby confusing everyone as to why I keep listening to them), but the second volume of The Return of Sherlock Holmes manages to have only stories that I really enjoyed.
The Adventure of the Dancing Men: The best part about this story is Holmes and Watson's conversations with the first people they meet on their arrival in Norfolk. They've come on a prearranged appointment, but everyone assumes that they've been summoned because of the very recent tragedy, about which they have heard nothing. The stationmaster, police inspector, and surgeon convey isolated details that build in the most beautifully dramatic way to a full picture of the disaster.
I do not like the client's reasoning that he is behaving in a morally justifiable and sensitive way to his wife to hire a private detective to investigate something he has promised her that he will never ask her about.
The Adventure of the Solitary Cyclist: I loved this one so much. Mainly for Holmes' client, Miss Violet Smith, who is AWESOME. She's an independent, physically strong woman who thinks nothing of traveling alone by bicycle every week -- for 1903, I think it was pretty decent of Conan Doyle to let her be that and also to be unimpeachably respectable and feminine and totally confident about her femme attractiveness and her ability to take care of herself, even to the point of trying to chase down a stranger who seems to be following her. (At the end, when she's been rescued from a bad situation, I think it's regrettable in Holmes that he hears the explanation of the mystery without insisting on her being there.) Oh, and while part of the plot revolves around Violet Smith being attractive to various of the male characters, not only is she engaged to someone else, but her fiance plays absolutely no role in saving her or advancing the plot. Violet is the one who matters, and the question of whom she ends up with romantically is totally irrelevant to the story.
I absolutely loved the following exchange--
Holmes: "Why didn't you tell [Miss Smith] of the danger?"
[Another male character]: "Because then, again, she would have left me, and I couldn't bear to face that..."
Watson: "Well ... you call that love, Mr. [X], but I should call it selfishness."
Me: Oh, Watson!!!! <3 <3 <3
The Adventure of the Priory School: This one worked very well for me as an adventure story -- the hunt was exciting, the clues were challenging. The denouement, however, strikes me as extraordinarily conservative:
The Adventure of Charles Augustus Milverton: David Timson does a very good oily voice for the villain in this one. This story is unusual -- there's no real mystery to solve; we know from the start that Milverton is a wicked blackmailer, and the only question is how to defeat him. Then in the end, the solution Holmes plans is overridden by other events.
Holmes and Watson commit a crime (housebreaking for noble purposes!) this time instead of solving one. This is great fun for Holmes, who gets to let his inner criminal mastermind out to play, and for Watson, who gets to have a Moral Dilemma and manfully refuse to let Holmes go into danger alone. They go into danger together instead, and there's a lot of hand-holding in the dark. <3
I'm reading Allan Pinkerton's analysis of methods of theft (in Thirty Years a Detective, 1884) and am very amused by Conan Doyle's description of Holmes' housebreaking techniques in light of Pinkerton's insistence that English thieves are old-fashioned and inefficient compared to ingenious and mechanically sophisticated American thieves. If Holmes is representative, Pinkerton was right -- even 20 years later.
The Adventure of the Dancing Men: The best part about this story is Holmes and Watson's conversations with the first people they meet on their arrival in Norfolk. They've come on a prearranged appointment, but everyone assumes that they've been summoned because of the very recent tragedy, about which they have heard nothing. The stationmaster, police inspector, and surgeon convey isolated details that build in the most beautifully dramatic way to a full picture of the disaster.
I do not like the client's reasoning that he is behaving in a morally justifiable and sensitive way to his wife to hire a private detective to investigate something he has promised her that he will never ask her about.
The Adventure of the Solitary Cyclist: I loved this one so much. Mainly for Holmes' client, Miss Violet Smith, who is AWESOME. She's an independent, physically strong woman who thinks nothing of traveling alone by bicycle every week -- for 1903, I think it was pretty decent of Conan Doyle to let her be that and also to be unimpeachably respectable and feminine and totally confident about her femme attractiveness and her ability to take care of herself, even to the point of trying to chase down a stranger who seems to be following her. (At the end, when she's been rescued from a bad situation, I think it's regrettable in Holmes that he hears the explanation of the mystery without insisting on her being there.) Oh, and while part of the plot revolves around Violet Smith being attractive to various of the male characters, not only is she engaged to someone else, but her fiance plays absolutely no role in saving her or advancing the plot. Violet is the one who matters, and the question of whom she ends up with romantically is totally irrelevant to the story.
I absolutely loved the following exchange--
Holmes: "Why didn't you tell [Miss Smith] of the danger?"
[Another male character]: "Because then, again, she would have left me, and I couldn't bear to face that..."
Watson: "Well ... you call that love, Mr. [X], but I should call it selfishness."
Me: Oh, Watson!!!! <3 <3 <3
The Adventure of the Priory School: This one worked very well for me as an adventure story -- the hunt was exciting, the clues were challenging. The denouement, however, strikes me as extraordinarily conservative:
The Adventure of Charles Augustus Milverton: David Timson does a very good oily voice for the villain in this one. This story is unusual -- there's no real mystery to solve; we know from the start that Milverton is a wicked blackmailer, and the only question is how to defeat him. Then in the end, the solution Holmes plans is overridden by other events.
Holmes and Watson commit a crime (housebreaking for noble purposes!) this time instead of solving one. This is great fun for Holmes, who gets to let his inner criminal mastermind out to play, and for Watson, who gets to have a Moral Dilemma and manfully refuse to let Holmes go into danger alone. They go into danger together instead, and there's a lot of hand-holding in the dark. <3
I'm reading Allan Pinkerton's analysis of methods of theft (in Thirty Years a Detective, 1884) and am very amused by Conan Doyle's description of Holmes' housebreaking techniques in light of Pinkerton's insistence that English thieves are old-fashioned and inefficient compared to ingenious and mechanically sophisticated American thieves. If Holmes is representative, Pinkerton was right -- even 20 years later.
September 4, 2015
Another wonderful episode in the Sherlock Holmes series. The narration was wonderful and the stories were fabulous. The narrator captured Holmes's personality and I enjoyed listening to the stories unfold even though I've read them quite a few times before. I like that this time they switched to an entire orchestra instead of just violins, but they placed the music in such awkward places, it got distracting at times.
March 14, 2021
Some ACD. Terrific narrator. Terrible front cover - yech! However, it’s ACD, a terrific narration, at a nominal price ($1.99 @ Chirp). What a deal!
This edition is with a Well Done, John Day, narration -
front cover looks like a lady in drag. Guy might’ve had a wallet in his front pocket.
Couldn’t find the listing for this rendition in Goodreads but the narrator listed in the description AND the one I referred to are both pleasantly voiced males that enhance the plots and the reader’s enjoyment.
The narration listed in the description is read like a play with 2 narrators - 1 for Sherlock and the other for Watson.
This edition is with a Well Done, John Day, narration -
front cover looks like a lady in drag. Guy might’ve had a wallet in his front pocket.
Couldn’t find the listing for this rendition in Goodreads but the narrator listed in the description AND the one I referred to are both pleasantly voiced males that enhance the plots and the reader’s enjoyment.
The narration listed in the description is read like a play with 2 narrators - 1 for Sherlock and the other for Watson.
January 22, 2019
More great stories!!!
November 21, 2021
Not quite as good as other Sherlock Holmes but fun nonetheless.
November 18, 2022
Todas las historias son sumamente interesantes, y la narración de Watson nunca decae, así como la genialidad de Sherlock, que aquí muestra además amabilidad desinteresada con los demás.
April 11, 2018
Para empeza, es estupendo ver volver de la muerte a mi detective favorito, aunque esperaba algo más del capítulo de su regreso.
En esta saga de las aventuras de Sherlock Holmes he disfrutado mucho más que en la anterior. Los casos son mucho más originales e interesantes. Algunos, como "La aventura de Charles Augustus Milverton" y "La aventura del ciclista solitario", me han tenido en vilo hasta el final. Han sido los primeros relatos en los que la tensión no me despegaba de las páginas.
También me ha parecido que Sir Arthur Conan Doyle ha querido en los primeros relatos mostrar un poco más del carácter ególatra y condescendiente del detective, con constantes puyas a Watson (algunas bastante hirientes y sin razón alguna, aunque Watson nunca se inmuta), a los inspectores de policía y a sus propios clientes. Sin embargo, también nos hace notar que, bajo su orgullo y su amor propio, hay una inexistente necesidad de reconocimiento (cosa que me parece un poco contradictoria, pero eso es lo que hace más fascinante y especial al personaje). Sherlock destaca por su absoluta discreción, su deseo de anonimato (frustrado por su cronista particular) y, una característica sobre todo patente en esta saga, su idea de justicia. Holmes es, ante todo, una figura no oficial, como explica siempre a sus clientes y a los sospechosos de los casos que lleva, por los que a veces decide no difundir lo descubierto si considera que el acto llevado a cabo por el culpable estaba justificado.
También nos permite ver su lado más humano en relatos como "La aventura de los seis Napoleones", y cómo la tragedia también alcanza a algunos de los casos de Sherlock, sin que él pueda evitarlo.
En definitiva, esta saga me ha encantado. Cada vez me gusta más Sherlock (aunque me molesta cómo desprecia en ocasiones a su compañero) y Watson cada vez es más agudo, aunque Sherlock siga destacando sus errores por encima de sus aciertos, y tiene un papel mucho más activo en los relatos. En lo que respecta a Watson, él sigue todavía obsesionado con cada mujer que aparece en los relatos. Cada una de ellas es la más hermosa del mundo. Algún día encontrará a la más bella y delicada criaturita del universo y dejará de molestarnos con la competición xD.
En esta saga de las aventuras de Sherlock Holmes he disfrutado mucho más que en la anterior. Los casos son mucho más originales e interesantes. Algunos, como "La aventura de Charles Augustus Milverton" y "La aventura del ciclista solitario", me han tenido en vilo hasta el final. Han sido los primeros relatos en los que la tensión no me despegaba de las páginas.
También me ha parecido que Sir Arthur Conan Doyle ha querido en los primeros relatos mostrar un poco más del carácter ególatra y condescendiente del detective, con constantes puyas a Watson (algunas bastante hirientes y sin razón alguna, aunque Watson nunca se inmuta), a los inspectores de policía y a sus propios clientes. Sin embargo, también nos hace notar que, bajo su orgullo y su amor propio, hay una inexistente necesidad de reconocimiento (cosa que me parece un poco contradictoria, pero eso es lo que hace más fascinante y especial al personaje). Sherlock destaca por su absoluta discreción, su deseo de anonimato (frustrado por su cronista particular) y, una característica sobre todo patente en esta saga, su idea de justicia. Holmes es, ante todo, una figura no oficial, como explica siempre a sus clientes y a los sospechosos de los casos que lleva, por los que a veces decide no difundir lo descubierto si considera que el acto llevado a cabo por el culpable estaba justificado.
También nos permite ver su lado más humano en relatos como "La aventura de los seis Napoleones", y cómo la tragedia también alcanza a algunos de los casos de Sherlock, sin que él pueda evitarlo.
En definitiva, esta saga me ha encantado. Cada vez me gusta más Sherlock (aunque me molesta cómo desprecia en ocasiones a su compañero) y Watson cada vez es más agudo, aunque Sherlock siga destacando sus errores por encima de sus aciertos, y tiene un papel mucho más activo en los relatos. En lo que respecta a Watson, él sigue todavía obsesionado con cada mujer que aparece en los relatos. Cada una de ellas es la más hermosa del mundo. Algún día encontrará a la más bella y delicada criaturita del universo y dejará de molestarnos con la competición xD.
Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews