Reviews for Sherlock Holmes and the Mystery of Boscombe Pool, Level 3, Vol. 3

The average rating for Sherlock Holmes and the Mystery of Boscombe Pool, Level 3, Vol. 3 based on 2 reviews is 3 stars.

Review # 1 was written on 2017-03-23 00:00:00 Justin Didy Sherlock Holmes and his faithful sidekick Dr. Watson leave London to go to the rural Boscombe Valley in Herefordshire. Charles McCarthy has been murdered in the woods by a pool, and his adult son James--who had been arguing violently with his father minutes before--was covered with his father's blood. McCarthy was the tenant of another, more wealthy former Australian, John Turner, and the men had known each other in Australia. To thicken the plot, McCarthy was pushing his son to marry Turner's daughter but James was refusing (that's what the argument was about), and Turner didn't want his daughter to marry James either ... though the daughter (who hired Lestrade to help exonerate James) seems to be on board with the idea. The evidence looks damning and the son has already been convicted in the court of public opinion, but you can trust Sherlock Holmes to get to the truth of the matter. Like most of these short stories in The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes collection so far, I didn't found the mystery terribly mysterious. I figured out who the murderer was, but not why it happened -- though really there's no way to figure out why without certain facts that you find out only after the identity of the murderer is disclosed. Once again we see that Doyle's version of Sherlock has a bit of a soft spot. Next up: The Five Orange Pips.

Review # 2 was written on 2016-02-03 00:00:00 Gary Chack This was kind of an 'average' Sherlock Holmes mystery, if there is such a thing. The case of a young man who finds his father dead, and is then blamed for the murder. There are clues a'plenty leading to other suspects, but the forensic science of this time was just so poor, they're overlooked or dismissed. I did find it interesting that Holmes is conducting his own, somewhat modern forensic investigation. Lying on the ground. Searching the whole area for minute clues. Finding bits of things here and there that the local authorities had already trampled over. (He expresses very modern disgust at the disrespect shown the crime scene, something I've heard in many a modern, fictional book, and in film, and in real life, too.) Quite quickly Holmes figures out who did what to whom and why, but it's an altogether slow-moving story. Not one to be missed, though, by the true Holmesian fan.