Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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2 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Not Bad, 17 Jan 2002
By A Customer
This is the first book i have read by Arthur Conan Doyle, and i have to say i doubt it will be my last. a well-told and intriguing story, it kept me hooked until the end. if i have one criticism of this book, it would be that it is perhaps a little too short, but apart from that i cannot fault it.
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1 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A great addition to the Holmes canon!, 16 Nov 2005
When a frightened and desperate young woman enters Sherlock Holmes' sitting room, he refuses to dismiss her fears. Two years ago, Miss Helen Stoner's sister Julia had died under mysterious circumstances, after having heard a mysterious whistling in the night. And now, just when she is soon to be married, Helen is hearing the same whistling! Miss Stoner's step-father is a brute and a scoundrel, but is he up to something even more sinister? The game is indeed afoot! First published in Strand Magazine in February, 1892, this is a fun and exciting Holmesian mystery. As the story unfolds, it quickly becomes clear who the villain of the story is, but what is he doing and how? Also, there are a few mistakes made with the story (there is no such thing as a Indian swamp adder, and cheetahs are not native to India), but A.C. Doyle was not writing serious non-fiction but a ripping good detective yarn. Overall, I found this to be a great Sherlock Holmes story, one that is a great addition to the canon. I loved this book, and highly recommend it!
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4 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
"It was the band! The speckled band!", 8 Aug 2005
These were the strange last words spoken by Helen Stoner's twin sister Julia as she lay, collapsed and dying, just two weeks before her wedding. Helen has approached Sherlock Holmes because her stepfather, Grimesby Roylott, owner of a decrepit old manse, has moved her into her sister's room just a month before her own wedding, saying her own room needs "repairs." Now some of the strange, night-time events which mystified her sister just before her death are occurring again. Strange, low whistles occurring around 3:00 a.m., Roylott's baboon and cheetah prowling freely in the dark, a band of gypsies camping on the property, and mysterious clangings have left Helen terrified.The appearance of Roylott at Holmes's Baker Street residence, his physical threats, and his bending of a fire poker in half to show his strength make Holmes even more determined to help Helen to protect herself from this maniac. After Watson and Holmes gain admittance to Helen's quarters one night, they make additional observations--a bell pull which is not attached to any wiring, a new ventilator, a sound like a steam valve, and a bed that is anchored to the floor. How could all these weird observations be related "the speckled band"? As always, the melodrama of events is set into sharp relief by Holmes's rational deductions. Doyle's well known ability to build suspense by capitalizing on the fears of his characters (and his readers), his use of vivid dialogue, his imaginative descriptions, and the quick pace of the action make this story compelling reading. The real mystery is not who killed Julia Stoner (and threatens Helen), but how the murder took place, and in this respect "Speckled Band" is one of Doyle's most elaborately constructed and most fascinating stories. Reputed to have been Doyle's own favorite story, it is the only mystery which Doyle himself adapted successfully for the stage.
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