The Casebook of Sherlock Holmes (1921-1927)
My review:
The Mazarin Stone
A remarkably poor story, told in the third person—and rather awkwardly at that, with purple prose oozing out all over the floor. The plot (such as it is) concerns the robbery of the Crown diamond, an investigation undertaken on behalf of the P.M. and the Home Secretary. Waxworks and airguns are recycled from "The Empty House," showing a dreadful lack of imagination; and the gramophone trick is unconvincing. Count Negretto Sylvius is as dull a villain as the whole enterprise itself. A bad start to the series, with one loose end: why is the case "half finished"?
The Problem of Thor Bridge
A fine recovery from the banality of "The Mazarin Stone," this classic offers a genuine detective problem for Holmes: to clear an innocent woman of the murder of the Brazilian wife of an American senator and gold magnate. Holmes is superb throughout, and the insignificant chip in the stone parapet of the bridge is the principal clue to an ingenious problem with a surprising solution.
The Creeping Man
For some reason, this story is often attacked as one of the worst Holmes stories. Personally, I love it. Akin to Stevenson's Dr. Jekyll & Mr. Hyde, this mixture of horror and science-fiction with the detective story is bizarre and sinister, the sort of story in which nothing can be taken for granted. The problem: why has Professor Presbury gone mad, and why has his faithful wolf-hound twice attacked him? (Like "Shoscombe Old Place," the dog is the principal clue.) The solution is ingenious and original, and clearly inspired G.K. Chesterton's "The Terrible Troubadour": "To find something that goes very high in Nature, one must go very low."
The Sussex Vampire
Not to be confused with the Jeremy Brett film, which was in the nature of a Mrs. Bradley adaptation: keep the title and construct an entirely new story. The vampirism is at once simple and horrifying: a mother is caught drinking the blood of her baby. From a study of character and a wounded dog (another dog!), Holmes reaches a psychologically interesting solution. Rather slight, however.
The Three Garridebs
A variation on "The Red-Headed League" and "The Stockbroker's Clerk," and less interesting than the former. Clues are good, particularly a treatment of U.S. vs. U.K. English. The climax, in which Holmes' affection for Watson is revealed, is excellent.
The Illustrious Client
Watson called this tale "the supreme moment of my friend's career," and it is easily the best tale in this collection: a simple story, without ingenious murder methods or detection, but with well-drawn characters and original points. Baron Gruner makes a most superior villain; the dialogue is superb, the scenes are dramatic, and the climax is excellent. Flawless.
The Three Gables
Again, a descent into the abyss. This is a remarkably poor story, loosely-constructed, the ending an anti-climax, and the storytelling dull and awkward. It opens badly with Holmes being threatened by "a savage," over whom Holmes gains the upper hand by being unpleasantly racist, and goes downhill from there.
The Blanched Soldier
An example of a story with a superb build-up, which has the reader on the edge of his seat, desperate to find out the mystery concerning the young man imprisoned by his father—and spoilt by an anti-climactic ending. Note that it is one of two stories narrated by Holmes himself.
The Lion's Mane
And here it is. Narrated by Holmes-in-retirement, the detective narrowly avoids making a mistake based on the victim's towel. Like "The Blanched Soldier," the build-up is excellent—a man dies horribly on the beach, apparently whipped to death, living only long enough to gasp "The lion's mane!" before he dies. The solution is disappointing: while we can accept animals if used by a human villain (c.f. "The Speckled Band," The Hound of the Baskervilles), it is disappointing to find that the victim was accidentally stung to death by a jellyfish.
The dog in this one is also stung to death by the jellyfish.
The Retired Colourman
Holmes and Watson in a more realistic vein than in other stories, as the crime is remarkably sordid and down-to-earth. Josiah Amberley, a retired manufacturer of artistic materials, asks Holmes to find his wife and her lover, who took with them his life savings. With the assistance of (gasp!) an intelligent and eccentric policeman, one Insp. MacKinnon, Holmes produces an air-tight case against Amberley. Unfortunately, Watson is away from Holmes for most of the story, reducing the opportunity for scenes between the regulars, but allowing Doyle to show Amberley in all his miserliness.
The Veiled Lodger
Without any doubt, this melodramatic and perfunctory tale is the poorest story in the Canon; even Watson realiess that it "brought him the fewest personal opportunities," as Holmes does nothing but listen to the veiled lodger, thereby preventing her suicide. There is much pointless discussion before this point is reached, so that the tale suffers from the John Rhode disease of theorising without data. Boring, anti-climactic, rubbish.
Query: why weren't we given the tale of the politician, the lighthouse and the trained cormorant?
Shoscombe Old Place
The last words Doyle ever penned in the Holmes saga stand as an epitaph for the series and the detective: "got away scathless from this strange incident in a career which has now outlived its shadows and ended in an honoured old age." We may all be thankful that this solid and ingenious tale was the last Holmes tale, and not "The Veiled Lodger." Set, like "Silver Blaze," in a racing milieu, and concerning the quarrel between the gentleman jockey, Sir Robert Norberton, and his sister, Lady Beatrice Falder, Holmes does a good job of solving the crime, especially as concerns the dog (the original title was "The Adventure of the Black Spaniel"), and the atmosphere is suitably macabre: human bones and mummies are integral to the plot, and the story reaches a fine climax in the crypt.