This collection of short stories is a fantastic introduction to Sherlock Holmes. Each story presents a new mystery for the great and brilliant detective to solve, as told by his good friend Watson.

The first story, "A Scandal in Bohemia," rather brilliantly introduces The Woman, Irene Adler, one of the rare individuals to actually outsmart Holmes. Love her character.

"The Five Orange Pips" is another fantastic story, which includes mention of the KKK.

In general, I enjoyed each and everyone one of these stories, even the few in which I guessed the perpetrator of outcome. The stories do not always involve criminal cases and Holmes does not always catch his villain. I love that not all the stories have a clean resolution. Sometimes Holmes just doesn't bother giving the client justice as modern readers would expect a hero to do. Sometimes he is denied achieving resolution due to powers outside of his control. It all makes for great reading.

Holmes is such an enigmatic and interesting character. His addiction to cocaine is mentioned but not expanded upon. His ego and love of revealing his cleverness is clear. I didn't notice Watson's annoyance with these qualities (except for once), so much as I noticed his awe over Holmes' mind and intelligence. In fact, Holmes seemed to be a bit less put-offing here than I've seen in shows or movies.

Anyway, the writing is great and concise, the characters are interesting, and the mystery reveals are fun — I'll definitely be reading more Holmes stories in the future. ( )

Sherlock Holmes is the mastermind detective of the ages. So loyal are his fans that even today, thousands of people all over the world belong to clubs and societies devoted to him.