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Whats Your Favorite Case?


EvigMidnat

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My favourite case has to be "The Blue Carbuncle". It was the first Holmes story I read. I would have been 10 years old. The Christmas atmosphere and the deductions from Henry Baker's hat was as magic to me.

 

A close second, would be "The Red Headed League".

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I also like "The Blue Carbuncle" (even though I didn't read it till recently), but I just can't appreciate "The Red-Headed League."  Maybe if you explained why you like it so much, I would see it in a different light.

 

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While I need to re-read them all again, my favorite is The Adventures of the Bruce Partington Plans. 

 

and that is so wonderfully atmospheric....... the fog...!!!!

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I also like "The Blue Carbuncle" (even though I didn't read it till recently), but I just can't appreciate "The Red-Headed League." Maybe if you explained why you like it so much, I would see it in a different light.

It is an unique case in that the clues are so blatantly obvious on a second read. It has unusual characters (even more so than the other cases) and the confrontation and apprehension of an educated criminal of the English Upper Class, and done in a Pawn Shop!

 

Meyers

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While I need to re-read them all again, my favorite is The Adventures of the Bruce Partington Plans. 

 

and that is so wonderfully atmospheric....... the fog...!!!!

 

 Yep you can't beat a good ol' pea-souper!  :lol:

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It is an unique case in that the clues are so blatantly obvious on a second read. It has unusual characters (even more so than the other cases) and the confrontation and apprehension of an educated criminal of the English Upper Class, and done in a Pawn Shop!

My main problem with "The Red-Headed League" is believing that such a gullible client could actually exist -- though it does seem that scam artists are still in business today.

 

Other than that, I did enjoy the Jeremy Brett episode, especially the perp's snobbish refusal to be handcuffed (which reminded me a bit of Moriarty's "don't muss the suit" attitude in "The Great Game").

 

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I liked "The Red Headed League" as a teenager because it's so funny and more light-hearted than most of the other stories, which seemed largely dark and sinister. Not good for reading late at night. But "The Red Headed League" simply made me laugh.

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My main problem with "The Red-Headed League" is believing that such a gullible client could actually exist -- though it does seem that scam artists are still in business today.

 

 

You're right.

I'm thinking of Bernie Madoff.

 

Meyers

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I'm partial to Jeremy's The Hound Of The Baskervilles. :)

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I'm partial to Jeremy's The Hound Of The Baskervilles. :)

Ah! The Boot Manufacturer is the key. (Tongue firmly implanted in cheek)

 

Meyers

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  • 2 months later...

I'm quite partial to "The Dying Detective" I like the way Holmes lets Smith think he has beaten him totally before turning the tables. 

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... and I did get the impression that Holmes did the whole act as much for the doctor's benefit as the villain's. He thought he was being very funny and clever. His idea of a great practical joke was about as atrocious as Sherlock's.

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As I recall, he lets Watson think so too.  Poor Watson -- always counted on, rarely confided in.

 

Well Holmes knew Watson was too good a doctor to be fooled by his disguise. 

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  • 2 weeks later...

... as in "The Empty House"?  ;)

 

Ha ha never let it be said that Doyle was too good for a plot hole when he needed it. 

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While the Moran plot is not my favorite case, "The Empty House" is definitely one of my favorite stories. There is a deep satisfaction for me in Holmes and Watson both returning to Baker St, to Mrs Hudson beaming over the fireside, and everything being "indeed like old times". It's such a perfect resurrection not only of Holmes himself but of everything around him. And it makes me laugh in a fond way how well everything goes for the detective, how nobody is the least bit mad at him, everybody is so glad he's back and Watson faints with joy and the police are working well with him and his brother has preserved his rooms and then they catch Moran so his life isn't even in danger any more and everything is just fine. I am glad Sherlock took a different turn, but I still love that funny old story.

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  • 5 weeks later...

I may have missed something here (and I've not been on in a long while) but I think people forget that when they read the original Sherlock Holmes they're reading Victorian fiction. People wrote very differently in those days and it appears tedious at times but that is the style of writing prevalent at the time and ACD would have had to write the way his readership expected to read. The result is more a comment on the styles of the times than anything I guess.

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  • 4 months later...

Bumping a thread....

 

I've said frequently how much I love HLV as an episode, but I also really love "The Adventures of Charles Augustus Milverton" as a canon story, quite apart from transporting any of the episode into it.  (I do have CAM look like CAM from HLV in my mind, but that's really it, and that's partially because they borrowed and adapted the physical description quite faithfully.)

 

Reading the story really gave me a chilling feeling about CAM.  This is one of the most plausible evil villains I have encountered:  someone who delights in taking apart people's lives just because he can.  It really doesn't matter whether you are talking about a handful of Victorian love letters or a memory stick full of computer files, the threat from this kind of villain has always been present, and it is absolutely chilling.  Definitely one that I have read multiple times as I work my way through the canon.

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  • 4 months later...

Seems a bit harsh given the pleasure Sir ACD has given us but...

 

1. The Mazarin Stone. Too many coincidences - hoping that the villains implicate themselves. Plus the doll decide had already been used.

2. The Three Garridebs. A re-writing of The Red Headed League and The Stockbrokers Clerk - getting an unwitting obstacle out of the way

3. The Devil's Foot. Never warmed to it.

4. A Study in Scarlet. Well, the second half of it. I love the first half, obviously.

5. The Noble Batchelor. More gossipy than crime based.

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