Litsy

PurpleyPumpkin

Winter at Death's Hotel: A Novel | Kenneth Cameron

Day 26 #SetInHotel #AboutABook

Eggs, Alwaysbeenaloverofbooks

Eggs Great cover! 4mo

PurpleyPumpkin @Eggs 👍🏽 4mo

35 likes2 comments

Read4life

The Final Problem | Arthur Conan Doyle

pick

#NoPlaceLikeHolmes

I loved reading the discussion thread just now. I didn‘t have anything to add. The comments and insights were great & I‘m so happy to have this group and that there‘s more Holmes to read.

Cuilin, dabbe

dabbe Yay! If we'd read this story back when it was first published, we'd be wearing those arm bands and banging down the door at the STRAND magazine (or throwing old fruit at Doyle's mansion) in order for him to continue with H & W! 🤩😂🤗 4mo

42 likes1 comment

Cuilin

The Final Problem | Arthur Conan Doyle

Just taking a moment to thank you all for joining us throughout this #buddyread I look forward each week to our discussions, so I for one am glad that this is not the end for #NoPlaceLikeHolmes

Cuilin @pageshifter @AnneCecilie @indoordame @librarybelle @theAromaOfBooks @Aimeesue @kelli7990 @5feet.of.fury @Read4Life @AnnR @mom2bugnbee @pageturner1 @eeclayton @erzascarletbookgasm @aroyse @dabbe @cuilin @mollyanna @Tineke @Larkken @StayCurious @kimrenee @alldebooks @CogsOfEncouragement @catlass007 @CrystalE02 @curiouserandcurioser @Larkken @BeeCurious @Blackink_WhitePaper @Sace @Daisey @RayHallucinogen @Born.A.Reader @Chrissyreadit @Fr3NcHtOaSt 4mo

IndoorDame I loved this one! It reminded me of the final episode of a 90s tv show. Mycroft shows up cause all the semi-regular cast members have to make an appearance, someone dies but you don‘t know who, or there‘s a terrible accident and you don‘t know if your favorite character will live… But if the show unexpectedly gets canceled over the summer hiatus and they don‘t write a proper resolution it‘s the worst feeling ever!!! 👇🏼 4mo

IndoorDame I‘d have hated if this was Sherlock‘s actual ending. And I‘d probably have been devastated reading it at the time thinking that was the case. 4mo

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Librarybelle I can see why his readers were up in arms over this. Not only to “kill” Holmes but to do it in such a way that leaves more questions than answers. It‘s a good chase story, but as you pointed out @Cuilin , so many questions. 4mo

Cuilin @Librarybelle it was certainly an exciting read and perhaps we should be grateful to the unanswered questions as they lead to many interpretations and a way back for Sherlock. 4mo

Cuilin @IndoorDame 90‘s tv show!!! Exactly. I‘m looking at you “My So Called Life”. 👀 4mo

IndoorDame @Cuilin I was obsessed with that show! 🤣🤣🤣 4mo

Cuilin @IndoorDame Same 🤦‍♀️ Canceling it though was unforgivable. 4mo

IndoorDame @Cuilin I know! 😭😭 4mo

Librarybelle So true, @Cuilin ! 4mo

CogsOfEncouragement I think Moriarty is in another league and SH saw how badly he needed to be stopped. M‘s intellect, reach, and numerous offenses do not compare with other cases. Though SH wasn‘t specific, his appearance/weight-loss and actions made that clear to Watson. 4mo

dabbe Moriarty's first name is James (that will come up in “The Empty House“). His brother's first name is James. Me? 😳 Could they be the same person? If Holmes survives the fall (like we all know he does), why not Moriarty, who then might pose as his brother as another one of his fronts? 4mo

kelli7990 I‘m glad it‘s not our final story. 4mo

Cuilin @dabbe here in lies the problem or blessing, if Sherlock can come back, so can Moriarty!!! 4mo

Cuilin @kelli7990 me too!!!! 4mo

dabbe @Cuilin 🎯!!! 4mo

dabbe @kelli7990 #ditto! 🤩🤩🤩 4mo

29 likes17 comments

Cuilin

The Final Problem | Arthur Conan Doyle

#NoPlaceLikeHolmes

I knew it was coming but it must‘ve felt out of the blue for the readers in 1893.

IndoorDame An adversary as smart as Holmes feels necessary for a “last story” so I wish we‘d actually gotten to see Moriarty directly, not just hear accounts of him, so we had a better sense of this. As for him being a crime boss pulling strings all over London, that part felt a bit lazy. 4mo

Bookwomble Moriarty was based on the criminal Adam Worth, whose sobriquet, the Napoleon of Crime, Doyle used in his story. Worth masterminded numerous thefts, usually through intermediaries, though he personally stole Gainsborough's portrait of Georgiana, Duchess of Devonshire, ancestor of Princess Diana. His enormous bodyguard, Jack "Junka" Phillips, seems to have inspired the henchman RDJ's Holmes fights in the shipyard, at least he put me in mind of him.

The Napoleon of Crime: The Life and Times of Adam Worth, Master Thief

4mo

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Librarybelle Thanks for sharing that info, @Bookwomble ! I did not know that. At this point in the Holmes canon, we know that Conan Doyle wanted rid of Holmes. It‘s interesting that he wrote this with vague info about an arch nemesis, but I noticed that the ending could be up for interpretation, which paves the way for Holmes to come back. 4mo

Cuilin @IndoorDame I think he should have used Moriarty in a few unsolved stories before this one. 4mo

Cuilin @Bookwomble great information. Thank you. 🙏 4mo

IndoorDame @Bookwomble I love that he was based on a real person! It would change everything if he was recognizable to readers of his time. Thanks for sharing! 4mo

Bookwomble @IndoorDame I think he may've been known publicly, probably to those with Holmes's penchant for reading the crime notices. Worth was certainly known to both the Pinkertons in USA for multiple crimes, & to Scotland Yard when he moved to London. He was not so respectable in class-conscious Victorian England as the learned Professor is in Doyle, but he managed to mostly evade the law, escaping from Sing Sing & serving a few years in a Dutch prison. (edited) 4mo

Bookwomble The book I previously tagged is really good, and a summary of his life and exploits is on this Wiki: https://criminalminds.fandom.com/wiki/Adam_Worth (edited) 4mo

CogsOfEncouragement @Bookeomble That‘s awesome, thanks for the insight. 4mo

Cuilin @Bookwomble do you think many people reading the story for the first time made that connection? 4mo

Bookwomble @Cuilin I'm not sure - it's been a long time since I read Ben Macintyre's book! His theft of the Gainsborough in 1876 was certainly a sensation, and he was suspected of the theft by Scotland Yard, and the Pinkertons were involved in the case, I think at the behest of the insurance company - the painting had been auctioned at £10,000, so it was a big deal. I think it's intriguing that Worth held onto it for 25 years, partly because it was so hot ⬇️ 4mo

Bookwomble ... but also because he was so bewitched by the subject. 4mo

Cuilin @Bookwomble I‘ll have to look into it. I do love an art heist mystery. 4mo

Bookwomble @CogsOfEncouragement You're welcome 😊 Litsy is one of the few places my trivia-laden brain is accepted! 😄 4mo

CogsOfEncouragement @Bookwomble When people ask me what Litsy is I explain that when I post about a book I‘m reading on facebook no one cares but on Litsy people actually care. lol 4mo

Bookwomble @CogsOfEncouragement Exactly! 😄 4mo

dabbe To me, this is Doyle's best doppelganger story. Moriarty is Hyde to Holme's Jekyll. He's the corrupt painting to Dorian Gray, the evil mirror image to Holmes. Yet, Holmes never once tells Watson of this mastermind of crime? Time to really suspend the disbelief. And, exciting as this mystery-that's-not-really-a-mystery is, there is a lot of TELLING and not SHOWING. Where's the proof that Moriarty is as intelligent as Holmes? 4mo

dabbe @Bookwomble Thanks so much for extra info! 🤩🤩🤩 4mo

kelli7990 Since Holmes died, Watson isn‘t going to have anyone to solve mysteries with. What will he do then? Watson can solve mysteries by himself but I don‘t think it will be the same without the dynamic that they have together. They worked so well together. 4mo

27 likes20 comments

Read4life

The Final Problem | Arthur Conan Doyle

#FirstLineFridays @ShyBookOwl

#NoPlaceLikeHolmes

dabbe Sure, Conan Doyle, sure! 🤩🤩🤩 Can't wait to discuss tomorrow! 4mo

Bookwomble @dabbe Well, when he wrote it it was true 😄 4mo

dabbe @Bookwomble 🎯. Until he realized how much SH and Watson were adored. 🤩 4mo

Bookwomble @dabbe Until he was offered an irrefusable (unrefusable? 🤔) amount of money by his USA publisher! 🤑 4mo

dabbe @Bookwomble Yep. And suddenly he didn't mind writing about good ol' Sherlock anymore. 😂 4mo

44 likes5 comments

LitsyEvents

The Final Problem | Arthur Conan Doyle

Repost for @dabbe and @cuilin #theresnoplacelikeholmes next read along.
original post: https://www.litsy.com/web/post/2766260

dabbe Thanks you! 🩶🖤🩶 4mo

29 likes1 comment

dabbe

The Final Problem | Arthur Conan Doyle

#NoPlaceLikeHolmes @Cuilin @LitsyEvents
#TheFinalProblem

Hi, Sherlockians~
Lively discussion yesterday! Next up: “TAO (The Adventure of) The Final Problem“, the last story in THE MEMOIRS OF SH (and the last Doyle had hoped to write--little did he know)! The link for more information re: the story is below (with a summary--spoiler alert!). Next discussion will be on 8/24 and will be led by @Cuilin. Have a good week! 🤩
Link: https://bit.ly/3AEPCsn

Daisey, erzascarletbookgasm, CogsOfEncouragement, AnneCecilie, Born.A.Reader, Aimeesue, Larkken, Librarybelle, mom2bugnbee, Read4life, StayCurious, Sace, CatLass007, Mollyanna, curiouserandcurioser, eeclayton, dabbe, IndoorDame, kelli7990, TheAromaofBooks, 5feet.of.fury, Tineke, Blackink_WhitePaper, RayHallucinogen, Pageturner1, PageShifter, AllDebooks, AnnR, kimrenee, aroyse, CrystalE02

Librarybelle Thank you! 4mo

kelli7990 Yay! These stories have been so fun to read in between other books and they‘re not a big time commitment which I like because they‘re one and done. 4mo

Cuilin 👍🫶 4mo

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dabbe @Librarybelle 😘 4mo

dabbe @Cuilin 😘 4mo

dabbe @kelli7990 😘 4mo

55 likes6 comments

andrew61

The Prayer of the Night Shepherd | Phil Rickman

pick

6th in the reverend merrily Watkins series finds her and her teenage daughter drawn into a mystery set in an apparently haunted hotel on the welsh/English border where Arthur conan doyle was reputed to have stayed. Merrily diocesan exorcist is an enjoyable character, + the book has 2 threads, but lord at over 600 pages long I felt at times it could have done with a heavy edit. But as I enjoy these stories, I'll definitely be back for more.

43 likes1 stack add

PurpleyPumpkin

The Sherlockian | Graham Moore

Comin‘ at ya with a back-to-back #CoverLove post! Today‘s prompt: #tanbeige
#myneverendingtbr

Eggs, Alwaysbeenaloverofbooks

Eggs 🖤👏🏻🤍 6mo

36 likes1 comment

Cuilin

The Musgrave Ritual | Arthur Conan Doyle

#NoPlaceLikeHomes

For some reason, I‘m okay with Rachel absconding.

@pageshifter @AnneCecilie @indoordame @librarybelle @theAromaOfBooks @Aimeesue @kelli7990 @5feet.of.fury @Read4Life @AnnR @mom2bugnbee @pageturner1 @eeclayton @erzascarletbookgasm @aroyse @dabbe @cuilin @mollyanna @Tineke @Larkken @StayCurious @kimrenee @AllDebooks

Cuilin @CogsOfEncouragement @catlass007 @CrystalE02 @curiouserandcurioser @Larkken @BeeCurious @Blackink_WhitePaper @Sace @Daisey @RayHallucinogen @Born.A.Reader @Chrissyreadit 6mo

Librarybelle I liked the riddle…admittedly, it‘s a little eye rolling to me, but it also has layers of history and secrecy. It‘s a code to something far bigger than the Musgraves themselves. I really had no deep thoughts on her fleeing & never being caught, though I applaud her resourcefulness to escape when she could. The “hysterical” woman stereotype was a little too much for me, but we‘ve discussed perceptions of women in past stories, so no surprise there. 6mo

Cuilin @Librarybelle imagine women have feelings and emotions. 😮 I thought it interesting that Doyle said fiery and Celtic together since he would be considered a Celt too, being from Scotland of Irish descent. Of course he‘s a man and in control of his emotions. Lol. I like the riddle too. 6mo

IndoorDame Oddly for all that she‘s fiery and Celtic, and suffering from a touch of brain fever and all that 🙄 I found this story emotionally flat so I also didn‘t think about whether she should have been allowed to escape or whether she should be prosecuted for her crimes. 6mo

dabbe It's interesting to note that in the the Granada TV version starring Jeremy Brett, it very clearly shows that Rachel threw herself into the mere with the bundle, and it actually shows her body being recovered later. Brain fever, indeed. 😱 Justice appears to be done in the tv show. 6mo

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