#HolmesPeerReading ADVENTURES part 3

The next three stories for ADVENTURES provided memorable action sequences that truly showcased Doyle's knack for descriptive prose and predilection towards the most mundanely bizarre. I know I haven't been exactly consistent in my reading lately, let alone posting my thoughts about it, but make no mistake: I'm still willing to see this peer reading through. I only have three more stories to go before I'd be finished with ADVENTURES, and, so far, this collection has a varied range of cases that are riveting, baffling and humorous (sometimes even downright unsettling for a few notable exceptions). Without further ado, here are my thoughts:

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✫⎣Case #07⎦✫ THE ADVENTURE OF THE BLUE CARBUNCLE

This can be readily seen as a Christmas story, given that it was set during the yuletide season. I remember this story well mainly because of the Granada adaptation. It started with Watson and Holmes examining a hat whose owner's identity they were trying to discern. It should be no surprise that Holmes had been able to deduce the kind of man who wore it based solely on the physical clues he could see. He's used this truck time and time again, and Watson still finds himself floored about it.

The real case that followed after tackled a thievery which involved a precious royal gem called the blue carbuncle. It was apparently famous and had gone missing. The leads were measly at best, so Holmes had to get creative in how he deduced the stone's whereabouts and how the burglar managed to stash it away without being detected. The answers to that were funny, making the tone of this entire narrative lighthearted and almost comical.

I enjoyed this story because it was goddamn funny in a few places, especially when it was at last resolved, and Holmes confronted the perpetrator. In a twist I should have seen coming, the Great Detective let the man go simply because it was Christmas. That twist was pretty credible to me. After all, Holmes has done the same thing before in which he took it upon himself to not bring a criminal to justice, mostly because of the gray area of the circumstances.

However, doing the same for this case was of petty consequence unlike that other time. Holmes assessed that the thief was not inherently a bad man but only a desperate and foolish one. He also reasoned out that sending said nervous wreck into prison and subjecting him into such harsh conditions may only refine him as a more cynical man who might be more susceptible to commuting worse crimes in the future. It actually made a whole lot of sense. Not sending the man to prison may have been a good way to reform him as opposed to the real punishment of serving time.

So it was essentially a Christmas favor that Holmes let this man off the hook.

﹂✦ RATING: 7/ 10

✫⎣Case #08⎦✫ THE ADVENTURE OF THE SPECKLED BAND

I. love. this. story. This was one of the few in ADVENTURES that really stayed with me and captured my imagination because of how seamlessly it flowed from beginning to end. It reeled me instantly as a reader from the moment the client was introduced and she began narrating the odd and subtly sinister situation she was experiencing that prompted her to consult the Great Detective.

This woman had a twin sister who died under suspicious circustmances and whose dying words while delirious haunted her. Holmes and Watson were in-sync at this point of their partnership even though the latter wasn't sure what to expect and was kept in the dark most of the time. Still he trusted Holmes knew what he was doing, and his friend never failed him in that regard.

It's worth noting that SPECKLED is a locked mystery story, which is a staple of the detective genre to this day. Doyle has done an exceptional job building up the tension and suspense by giving up enough clues which would aid us readers to figure them out along with Holmes, although in reality we were just as confused about the events as Watson, who was still a pretty reliable narrator in spite of the chaos and shocking murder twist at the end of the story.

Playing up both the mystery and murder aspects of a detective story is always a delicate balance to maintain, and Doyle for SPECKLED did an excellent job conveying this. I don't want to describe the details of this story at all because I would be hard pressed not to spoil the entire thing. All I can say is that this was clearly one of the best Doyle has written and certainly one of the striking ones.

﹂✦ RATING: 9 / 10

✫⎣Case #09⎦✫ THE ADVENTURE OF THE ENGINEER'S THUMB

Fresh from the heart-stopping previous story about a speckled band, this one also delivered when it came to the action and suspense. A good eighty-percent of the short stories in Holmes canon was usually told in flashbacks in which the client would describe in detail events that have transpired before they found themselves in the safety of Baker Street. This one was no exception.

I can say that the riveting account for this one has rivaled that of THE FIVE ORANGE PIPS from last time. The man who told his tale was a hydraulic engineer hired to examine and do repairs for a hydraulic press owned by a family. He had a sinking feeling about the job already, but since it paid well enough, he decided to throw precaution to the wind, which was a big mistake. He found that later on and regrettably so.

The build-up and the actual attempted murder was rendered with chilling passages about how the engineer narrowly escaped death thanks to his perseverance and the kindness and guilty conscience of a stranger in the household. He had lost his thumb, however, but gained a second chance at life at least. The ending was a good simmer from that suspense, although Holmes was unable to apprehend the criminals who tried to kill the engineer since they arrived to late to the scene.

For that lukewarm lack of real resolution, I'm taking another star from my rating although the climactic events were still pretty damn engrossing to read anyway.

﹂✦ RATING: 8 / 10