Chantel's Reviews > A Study in Scarlet

** spoiler alert ** I've struggled with how to review this book. Did I enjoy it or was it simply a rapidly progressing mystery with little opportunity for the depth of the mystery to set in? Was it creative or was it simply a play on a complicated religious belief that was not properly understood at the time? Was the mystery deep & brooding or was this a case of wasted life & an obvious set of clues?

In my opinion, this was not the best book I have ever read nor was it the most memorable, nor did it leave me feeling as though I had finally accomplished the feat of reading a much-beloved classic; it was overall a disappointment. This is not to say that I did not appreciate the story, I did. However, at just over 180 pages this story flew by so quickly, that I felt as though I were reading a report.
 
It's perhaps difficult to express my feelings without making it seem as though this book were an utter failure. The mystery itself was of interest to me & I did somewhat appreciate the depth of information that we were given regarding the criminal's backstory but, in the end, we weren't given very much.

A lone man fell in love with a random pretty lady & then decided to go on a murder rampage because the heads of the community, to which he did not belong, took the pretty lady's fate into their own hands. This is, of course, a simplification of the matter. However, reading through the story it felt overtly simple.
 
There was no point in the story in which I thought that the mystery was not going to be solved or that the scenario posed a complicated set of minuscule clues, that only a highly observant person might make note of. This is most likely due to my living in this century & therefore I do find most of Sherlock's wildly wonderful studies of the obvious a bit tedious.

At this time in life, criminal shows, stories & realities have become so enthralled in the lives of most common people that simply remaking on tire tracks is the basis for the most obvious first remark. The height at which the letters were written on the wall, etc etc. Don't get me wrong, this was cool to read about but it wasn't great. The main characters did work well with each other & I did enjoy the victorian feel of the story. Watson, well, I adored him.