Books: My first Sherlock Holmes mystery

That's not entirely accurate since I read a big book o' 37 Sherlock Holmes mysteries, which also included two novels.

Somehow I'd gone though high school and college without ever reading a Holmes mystery, and admittedly, it was Robert Downey Jr.'s turn as the famous Baker Street detective piqued that my interest in the books. But it was definitely worth the wait.

Knowing the Holmes mysteries were not originally intended to be read back to back, I will set aside my nitpicking on minor annoyances such as repeating phrases. While seeing the same phrases over and over was slightly irritating, it also created a consistency, both with Doyle's writing and Holmes himself. As a new reader, I gained a trust in author and character that lead to a full-on belief in their ability to give me an "ah-ha" moment based on an obvious point that I had missed. While reading the Holmes mysteries, I was able to be Dr. Watson for a couple months.

Reading the Holmes mysteries also taught me something about myself as booklover. Or more accurately, a novel-lover. In general, the short mysteries wound down too nicely me. Instead of meeting a shady figure two chapters in who would become the villain, Holmes deduces a young woman -- whom we meet fleetingly -- was taken by the dashing scoundrel -- whom we never meet -- whom her brother played cards with at his club. Instead of "ah-ha!," I was left with "o-kay?"

It was just too convenient. I allow for the answer to the riddle being only Sherlock Holmes can see, but sometimes I found the answer happened entirely away from the main story in a way that no one could have seen. This serves to further the mystique around Sherlock Holmes, and I can see how this would be doubly true a century ago. But in the CSI age, and after my own 20-plus years of reading, there was an element of the fantastic present in how Holmes knows everything.

That said, I was surprised by how modern the stories are, in science as well as subject. "The Adventures of the Five Orange Pips" in The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes addresses racism and the Klu Klux Klan in the South. "The Adventure of the Yellow Face," a story in The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, involves a young mother with a mixed-race child. Also, I would think nothing of reading a 2010 mystery in which the detective was an occasional cocaine user, but somehow it was scandalous reading about it in a story from 1901!

Movie vs. stories

Now that I've read the Holmes mysteries, seen the 2009 movie and a few of the movies starring Basil Rathbone, I can see how Downey's Sherlock could grow up to be to Basil's Sherlock, with his boxing and drugging and overall stubborn rebellion behind him. Jude Law's Dr. Watson could in no way decide to Nigel Bruce's Dr. Watson, who seemed to be good-naturedly clueless.

In or out?
I'm definitely in, to the extent that I can be, of course, with no new Doyles/Holmes mysteries forthcoming. but I did come across a compilation of Holmes stories "retold" by contemporary authors. I may check that out.