The Messenger Reviews

I was actually surprised by how much I liked this book. Normally, I'm not one for classics. But, since I enjoy watching BBC's Sherlock, and always believe that a book should be read before the movie (/TV show), I decided reading this collection of stories was something long overdue. Up until now, I had avoided reading this book because I generally find the writing style of classic books boring, and the plots slow. However, this book was a welcome exception to what I had believed to be a rule. I really enjoyed the writing style, and I was never bored for a second, even though it was sometimes easy to get distracted by other things.
The version I read had the 4 novels, A Study in Scarlet, The Sign of the Four, The Hound of the Baskervilles, and The Valley of Fear. Overall, I found the longer stories very entertaining, and it was interesting to guess and see what Sherlock would do next.The mystery was surprisingly easy to follow, but in no way predictable. However, I disliked when the story went on a tangent of sorts, like in A Study in Scarlet, when it talked about Mormons in Salt Lake City for five chapters or something, and the book turned from being an entertaining fiction to a drawling history. Even though the story gave the reason for the murder, I would have preferred just a couple of sentences, not a couple of chapters.
As for the short stories, I would have preferred them to be a little bit longer. However, knowing that they were originally written for a newspaper-of-sorts, their length makes perfect sense. But from where I was standing, I felt like the endings were too abrupt. Their would be a lot of background information, and often the mystery would be solved in a second. Additionally, I felt like a good part of them was just filler, and I found myself getting distracted or half-reading quite often.
Despite its flaws, I really enjoyed this book. It is one of the few classics I actually liked to read, and I loved reading it, even though it was really, really long. It definitely takes a while to get through, but I was never bored!