The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes

By: Sir Aurthur Conan Doyle

152/152

This book of six mysteries is the abridged version of the original classic.  My favorite mystery in the book is The Adventure of the Six Napoleons.  The story is about six plaster busts of Napoleon that were stolen individually and broken in the front yard of an empty house.  None of the plaster molds were very expensive.  Everybody thought that the theif was a madman or someone who was driven by anger at Napoleon, but Holmes thought it was something else causing the strange events.  Holmes thought that the perpetrator was after something valuble, such as a gem or a diamond.  In the end Sherlock had gone to the home of Mr. Brown, an owner of the busts of Napoleon, and he and Dr. Watson hid behind the bushes.  The criminal eventually did show up.  He went inside the house for a while and he came out later with something tucked under his arm.  The theif set the bust down on the concrete and he smashed it.  As soon as he smashed it Holmes tackled him.   

The next night Holmes had invited Dr. Watson over to talk.  A man came up to his door named Mr. Sandeford (the last owner of the busts of Napoleon) and he said that Mr. Holmes had sent for him.  Sherlock invited Mr. Sandeford in and Holmes paid Mr. Sandeford an outrages amount of money for the remaining bust.  Mr. Sandeford was terribly confused about why Mr. Holmes was paying so much for the bust.  Sherlock told him thank you and he left.  A couple of minutes later Sherlock got out a hammer and smashed the bust and inside lay the most extravigant jewel you have ever seen.  Later Sherlock returned the gem to the original owner and everybody was happy again.   

I read this book because I can remember reading it last year and I remembered how much I liked it.  I like the fact that there are like 6 “mini-stories.”  This helps me stay focused on the book because in some books when it’s one big, long story I can get bored in the low points of the book.  With the book being broken apart and being fast-paced anyway helps me a lot when reading. I would recomend this book to anybody who’s looking for a good book to read, especially if they like mysteries.