Oh man. A week or two ago, my dad mailed me The Complete Sherlock Holmes. I have never read them before, but I remember staying up late with Dad to watch Jeremy Brett (now atop my Netflix queue). He was the best.
After reading just the first two stories (A Study In Scarlet and The Sign of Four), I’ve downloaded the next book onto my blackberry’s e-reader so I can read on the go.
If you have not read Sherlock Holmes, you must. Holmes does everything the NCIS crew does without the benefit of technology. That sounds ridiculous, but that’s really the mark of a great writer, isn’t it? Taking something that, at first blush, seems ridiculous, and making you believe it. And the writing is good as well.
Aside from the primary characters (Holmes and Watson), character development is… not lacking, but certainly not in abundance. Every character is whole and believable, there just isn’t much time wasted in exhibiting their completeness. You feel like you know the characters just because you’ve spent some time with them. Gregson and Lestrade, for example, are full characters on which very little time is wasted, but whom you get to know very well. Imagery is a little lacking, but there’s a lot of meat to the writing. Sir Arthur Conan Doyle tells a good story with real characters.
That all being said, I worry (only a little) about the upcoming film starring Robert Downey jr. and Jude Law. We’ll see how that goes.
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I have read all of the Sherlock Holmes books ever printed. I have also read a series of Holmes books written by Laurie R. King. So far their are about 7 or 8 books and maybe more to come. You do need to read them in the order written.
ReplyDeleteLove you a bunch, thegramma
My favorite Holmes? Basil Rathbone, with Nigel Bruce as Watson. Black and white film at its best
ReplyDeleteI remember them. They were great too. Never saw them, but my dad had (and probly still has) the whole set of radio dramas on cassette. We listened to them in the car all the time.
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