His Last Bow (SH #8)

Sherlock Holmes literature is accessible, excellently written and feels like you're in the company of good friends, nearly always told from the perspective of Dr. Watson as he recounts the adventures of his estimable colleague, Holmes.

This is volume 8 out of 10, previously comprising four independent books (novellas) and three other volumes of short stories like this one. I'm kind of exhausted, but the quality remains excellent throughout.

My main criticism is the contents not being fleshed out enough, sometimes feeling jumbled together and incomplete for the sake of ending a story. There's a lack of punch at times, like a visit from Santa Claus - here're your presents, now onto the next house while I disappear up the chimney. You're drawn in, immersed in the world for a while and then hurried along for the next instalment that is never quite enough and occasionally unsatisfying, like the contents of an all you can eat menu rather than a proper four-course meal.

When you're as talented as Arthur Conan Doyle and mostly produce short stories for periodic magazine publications, there's going to be some regret on his part. But what does it matter when the legacy is as long lasting and lovingly crafted as this? If you enjoy his intellectual and throwaway writing style, you'll be hungry for more, for his exceptional story-telling talent, charming characters and fascinating content in entertaining bursts.

This probably isn't the best Sherlock Holmes short-stories volume, but that's what you get sometimes, a smorgasbord of mixed quality.