The Thumbnail Book Reviews
by John Q McDonald --- 7 January 2025
by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
This short breezy novel is the very first Sherlock Holmes novel to have been published, coming out in 1887. This is the one that launched a franchise spanning decades, an then a thriving economy of adaptations in radio, film, television and other media, now over 140 years later. It is the basic story of Holmes's first meeting and teaming up with Dr. John Watson. It is a basic murder mystery, beginning with the discovery of a bloodied body of an American in an abandoned Brixton Road townhouse. As is well-known about Holmes, he rapidly deduces much of the story of how and why this man turned up dead. It is almost unbelievable, until you sift through what seem to be totally obvious observations and deductions. There is a deft quality to all of this that remains a signature element of the Sherlock Holmes schtick. In this early novel, too, there is quite a bit of what we will come to know about Holmes and Watson that is still in the future, so there is a lightness about it. The book, however, has been among the least adapted of any of Doyle's novels and stories. And why might that be?
That may be because the second half of the novel slogs through a tale of Mormons settling the wild west of America. The tone of the book changes with this tale, and its pacing is considerably slower. It is also controversial because of its depictions of Mormons as murderous lunatics and reprobate heretics. Much later, Doyle and his descendents would have to reckon with a not entirely unjustified reaction to his portrayal of a religious sect that back then was brand new and is now one of the larger world religions. But, we have to consider how novel Mormons were in the late 19th century. Nobody could be sure who or what they were. They were certainly persecuted in this supposedly religiously tolerant nation. But there was a certain amount of violence attached to the movement in its early days (and, given the nature of the splinter "Funtamentalist Mormon Church", some violence persists today). Several British novels of the time use Mormons as a convenient antagonist to European civic culture. It is all so much sensationalism and willful ignorance. But it was a time when sensitivity to such things was not so much a priority as it can be today.
But, after this long digression, Doyle brings us back to London to wrap up the story that turns out to be one of religious schism and diabolical revenge. The game is afoot!
Also by Arthur Conan Doyle: [The Hound of the Baskervilles]