The Return of Sherlock Holmes

A previous collection of Doyle's stories, The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, brought so much pleasure that I couldn't wait for more. Here they are in THE RETURN OF SHERLOCK HOLMES stunningly presented by Simon Prebble.. If you've not yet heard a reading by Prebble, sit down and prepare to be well entertained. The British born Prebble, an experienced stage, television, and film, actor came to our country in 1990. Since then he has narrated some 350 audio books and has garnered every possible award (some numerous times) - A Golden Voice and Voices of the Century by AudioFile, 24 Earphone awards, 5 Listen Up awards...well, you get the idea, he's terrific. This collection of 13 Holmes stories was initially published during the years 1903 - 1904. It is the first collection to appear since Holmes supposedly died in "The Adventure of the Final Problem," and represents Doyle at his best. Among the 13 we find everything from The Adventure of the Empty House (which features the return of Holmes and his explanation of miraculously surviving a to the death struggle with Professor Moriarity) to The Adventure of the Second Stain. The redoubtable Watson is, of course, by Holmes's side throughout offering his memorable comments and questions. THE RETURN OF SHERLOCK HOLMES is truly a classic and one that detective fiction aficionados will want to hear again and again. - Gail Cooke

I enjoyed reading this very, very much!!! If you are a Sherlock Holmes fan you must read this!!!

Although he also wrote several novels featuring the world's greatest fictional detective Sherlock Holmes, it was especially in his short stories that Sir Arthur Conan Doyle perfected the Holmes formula. "The Return of Sherlock Holmes" (published in 1905) is the third of the five collections of Holmes short stories. Along with the second collection ("The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes"), "Return" is generally regarded as inferior to the superlative first collection ("The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes), but easily better than the last two in the series ("His Last Bow" and "The Case Book of Sherlock Holmes"). After Doyle had apparently killed Holmes in the last story of "Memoirs" (The Final Problem), the popular outcry which followed the disappearance of the legendary detective eventually led Doyle to resurrect his character in the first story of this new collection (The Empty House). But with "Return", Doyle perhaps even surpassed the earlier effort of "Memoirs", with excellent stories such as The Empty House, The Dancing Men, The Prioriy School, and the Six Napoleons, and other favorites like The Norwood Builder, Charles Augustus Milverton, The Golden Pince-Nez, and The Second Stain. In my view, fans of "Adventures" will find that the dozen stories of "Return" are a great second choice, and not much far behind the brilliance of the first collection. Here's a list of the stories in this collection (with the better stories marked with stars): **The Empty House, 1903 - One of the top ten stories, the presumed dead Holmes is "resurrected" to solve the murder of Ronald Adair, a card player. More interesting than this mystery, however, is the mystery of the account of Holmes own escape from death. *The Norwood Builder, 1903 - John Hector McFarlane is arrested for allegedly murdering Jonas Oldacre, who has just included McFarlane in his will, and it is up to Holmes to prove McFarlane's innocence and expose the events as a plan by Oldacre for revenge. **The Dancing Men, 1903 - A top ten favorite, as Sherlock Holmes needs to decode the threatening notes with mysterious symbols of dancing men received by Hilton Cubitt's wife. The Solitary Cyclist, 1903 - The mystery surrounding Violet Smith, who is regularly pursued by a strange cyclist, perhaps one of the various lovers who is after her hand in marriage. **The Priory School, 1904 - The only son of the Duke of Holdernesse is abducted from his private school, and Holmes uncovers what really happened to the boy, as well as the missing German schoolmaster. Black Peter, 1904 - The seaman Captain Peter Carey, known as Black Peter, was a nasty man, but who harpooned him to the wall of his outhouse and why? *Charles Augustus Milverton, 1904 - Charles Augustus Milverton is a reputed blackmailer who specializes in "selling" sensitive letters which reveal the dark secrets of the upper class - but he meets his match with Holmes who is enlisted by Lady Eva Blackwell shortly before her marriage to the Earl of Doverc

After his apparent death at the hands of Professor Moriarty, Doyle brought Holmes back for another installment of short stories (only because of public outcry, however). "The Adventure of The Empty House" is the first adventure that the newly returned Holmes embarks on, and it is one of the best. The way Doyle explains his survival actually seems real, not the usual cheap and cliched "surivival of the hero" stuff. Other good short stories in this collection include "The Adventure of the Dancing Men" and "The Adventure of the Missing Three-Quarter".

So everyone thought he was dead, murdered at the hands of Professor Moriarty. Not so of course (although Conan Doyle had intended to cease writing about Holmes - but a public outcry forced him to reconsider). In this highly affordable collection Holmes and Watson continue to pit their highly developed intellect against the not so refined minds of the criminal underworld - although Holmes does give them due credit for their duplicity. The only problem I find with Conan Doyle's writing is that it is a bit lacking in decent female characterisation - rather a sign of the times than a fault in his writing however.