Mahtab’s Bookshelf

Here is the “Pick for the Week” series, I’ll help you pick your ‘to becoming’ favourite books, fiction as well as well as non-fiction, ranging from all genres and all ages, through a weekly series of mini completely spoiler-proof reviews. 

You most likely don’t need me to tell you about the most competent, highly observant, methodical and most intelligent detective that the world has ever seen and loved so much, Sherlock Holmes. If not via Sir Doyle’s literature, you probably would have met (and loved) this rather eccentric detective, as Benedict Cumberbatch portrays in the British TV series, or from the movie duology starring Robert Downey Jr.

Sir Arthur Conan Doyle wrote 56 short stories and 4 novels starring Sherlock Holmes, and the purpose of this post is to draw attention towards how Sherlock came to be?, in other words, his origin story (hint – he doesn’t have one).

A Study in Scarlet by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle

This short novel doesn’t deal with baby Sherlock or something, rather it’s the origin of the Holmes-Watson duo. Watson, looking for an affordable flat, and Sherlock, looking for a roommate, are introduced by a mutual friend of theirs. However the novel isn’t only about cute meeting of the duo, it’s about what Sherlock stories are known for- mystery, and the unraveling of them; the cigarette ashes, the footprints, and his magnifying glass.

The plot goes as Sherlock is consulted by the two famous (yet incomparable to Sherlock) detectives of London, Lestrade and Gregson, regarding an abstruse case of murder, and more when the murdered man’s assistant is also found dead a day later. 爪 ⍰☐  no m or e   pl o t  rev e la tio ns☐ ⍰爪

Told by a master storyteller, and narrated from the perspectives of Dr Watson, in this first story of the duo, Sherlock is an alluring character to discover, and nonetheless gripping is the murder mystery.

So why is it a must read? – this is where the historical friendship took birth.

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