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SheriC

Portable Magic

Reading, for me, is entertainment and an escape from the real world. But it can also inform and stretch the boundaries of the life I live.

Currently reading

A Wizard of Earthsea (The Earthsea Cycle, #1)
Ursula K. Le Guin
Whisper Network
Chandler Baker
Progress: 54 %
Invisible Man
Ralph Ellison
Progress: 28 %
The Mystery at Lilac Inn
Carolyn Keene
100 Hair-Raising Little Horror Stories
Gary Raisor, Richard Chizmar, Al Sarrantonio, Avram Davidson
Progress: 70/512 pages
Leading Change
John P. Kotter
Peanuts Classics
Charles M. Schulz
Progress: 66 %
The Bungalow Mystery
Carolyn Keene
Progress: 192/192 pages
The Bungalow Mystery #3
Carolyn Keene
Progress: 192/192 pages
The Mystery at Lilac Inn
Russell H. Tandy, Mildred Benson, Carolyn Keene

The Sign of Four ★★★☆☆

The Sign of the Four  -  Arthur Conan Doyle Sherlock Holmes: The Definitive Collection -  Arthur Conan Doyle, Stephen Fry

In this second Sherlock Holmes novel, Dr. Watson falls adorably in love and we discover that Holmes has to keep his busy brain stimulated with cocaine when he doesn’t have a mystery to work on. As Watson regards this habit with the same level of disapproval that in 2019 we might regard a tobacco or junk food habit, I guess things were a bit different in the late 19th century. As chips & queso are an unfortunate habit of mine, I’ll not judge Holmes too harshly for his Victorian bad habits.

 

The mystery itself is a fun one, involving ill-gotten treasure, prison breakouts, murder, not-murder, greed, goofy landed gentry, and damsels in distress. And bumbling police, of course. Lots and lots of bumbling while Holmes gleefully smirks at them.

 

Unfortunately, it also involves a very Victorian attitude towards imperialism and non-white races, so some of the clues require the reader to embrace those attitudes as fully as do the characters.

 

Audiobook via Audible, from the wonderful complete collection read by Stephen Fry, who does a fantastic job as always. 

 

 

I read this book for the Booklikes Halloween Bingo 2019, for the square Genre: Mystery: Anything that fits the Mystery genre.

 

Prior Updates:

Sep22 0%