Title: A Study in Scarlet

Author Sir Arthur Conan Doyle

Published: 1887

Length: 126 pages

A Study in Scarlet introduces the world famous fictional detective, Sherlock Holmes. It is a crime mystery that includes two different murders; it is up to Sherlock to find out who the killer(s) is/are.

The protagonists in this book are called: Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson. Watson has just returned to London, from a war in Afghanistan. He later becomes Sherlock Holmes´ assistant, where he aids him in unraveling different murder mysteries. Sherlock Holmes is a detective. He uses his knowledge, brilliant memory and natural way of thinking to solve the cases he receives. In other words, Sherlock Holmes was a genius.

The story is set in London, and the first scene is located at the train station, when Watson comes home from the war.

Sherlock learns about a new murder mystery, and he rushes to the apartment to investigate the area. Watson finds himself drawn into the case and follows him. When they reached the apartment with the corpse, he found out some peculiar facts.

There was a dead body on the floor, with a marriage ring on top of it. In addition to that, the word “Rache” was written in blood on the wall. Rache could either mean revenge in German or the name Rachel. A couple of days later there was another murder in another apartment, the word Rache was written on that body as well. There had to be some sort of connection.

The book is written in third person, and has an incredibly hard language to comprehend. I advise you to keep a dictionary next to you while reading the book. Doyle never uses the word “He said”, he always uses words like “He cried” or “He said excitingly” to describe what tone of voice the characters in the book speak. I feel like that makes it easier to sympathize with the characters.

The book might be old, but I think it is imperative to read the classics in addition to the new modern ones, and this was a brilliant book to start with. It was a beautiful entangling love story, with a gruesome ending. The book is positively mesmerizing, the plot was exciting, the characters were brilliant and the sentences were formulated perfectly. I can say without a doubt that this is the best book I have ever read.

I would recommend this book to everyone who loves an incredibly good crime book, and to advanced English readers; this is a great way to expand your vocabulary. From a scale from one to ten I would give this book a well-deserved ten. All there is left to say is: hats off to Sir Arthur Conan Doyle.