The Adventure of the Empty House (The Return of Sherlock Holmes #1) by Arthur Conan Doyle
Rating: 4 of 5 stars
Book Review:
This book covers the ‘resurrection’ of Holmes, much to the relief of the publishers and joy of the readers of Strand Magazine. Strand was the one that published all the Holmes stories (iirc), and when Doyle got tired of Holmes and decided to get rid of him at the Reichenbach Fall, there was immense reader backlash. So he had no choice but to bring Holmes back. This was the result.
But I do wonder if it would have been better if this had been one of his full length Sherlock novels instead. After all, one would have loved to see a more in-depth account. But I suppose we are all just greedy about Sherlock Holmes, and we’d never be satisfied.
This has an account of his big reveal to Watson – about him being alive – while not very emotional, it was believable. Maybe Doyle did not prefer to spend so much time on it, instead choosing to get on with the adventuring.
Probably why we love him so much.