"Behind every person there is a story to tell". Following this statement, Robert Bennie brings back to life a woman called Mary, who used to wander around his workplace. A story that seems to be true, completely credible yet it is not. Bennie never had the chance to talk to her to go deeper in her life and to understand what brought her to an existence of begging and wandering; he simply felt moved by her death, all alone by the streets of London and this made him think about the possible life she had had.

An inspiration to all and an example of the best the human race can hope to achieve.

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All in all, I rather enjoyed this book. Watson's love interest certainly appealed, and the back story for this one was not quite as long (although even more dull). However, the fact that Holmes is a cocaine addict certainly lowered my respect for the character. I know it wasn't as frowned upon in those times, but nonetheless...

Crime. Yes. Basically the same as last time. Let's face it, they're very formulaic. There is little difference from one to the other. Only one more Holmes story to read now though, but after I've read a couple of other things I think. Break it up a bit.

Well, I have just finished a good several hours of reading, and the fruits of my labour have led me to turn the last page of the first Sherlock Holmes novel, A Study in Scarlet. I thought this was a very good book, although the change in perspective halfway through caused me to lose track and thus interest for a short time. However, I soon became involved in that story as much as that of Holmes himself.

My one criticism (falling on long-deaf ears though it is) is that of most early detective novels - by the time the detective gets around to explaining the details of how he deduced the murderer, I have had just about enough of that singular case. I know who the murderer is, and have a pretty good idea as to why the detective knew it was so, so I often loose patience with the endning of the book. No matter, I read it anyway.

In terms of the crime genre, this would not be one that I would use as a text in my study of it, simply because it is far too typical to be relevant to the path of study we are taking - that is the evolution of the crime genre. This is admittedly a very important text, but one too oft used to be of real use.

However, its relevance to the crime genre is obvious. The occurence of a murder, the cool, collected analysis of said murder, and the eventual unravelling of the mystery are not only typical of the crime genre, but integral to detective fiction. This was one of the most influential books in its subgenre, and thus is worthy of note.

VERDICT: A well-constructed classic, influential in its genre, and the foundation of a legend. 4/5