I’m off like a shot having finished my first book of the year and no, it isn’t The Book Thief.   Sherlock Holmes first adventure, A Study in Scarlet is rather short and easily read in a weekend, if not an afternoon.   I love the new Sherlock with Bandersnatch Cummerbund and Martin Freeman and I loved the old one with Jeremy Brett, who seemed at the time the quintessential Holmes, though from reading the book, he does now seem too old.   Watson gets his degree, goes to Afghanistan, gets shot up and catches fever – he should be fairly young and it reads like Holmes is of a similar age.  That’s a minor point though as both shows seem to capture well the deductive powers that entranced the original audience.   I have already forgotten why it’s called A Study in Scarlet, something about a thread, I think, and the backstory is as melodramatic as anything you’ll find in a contemporary sensation novel, it’s an entertaining book.  I still don’t see the logic of the murderer’s method.  Makes no sense to me, but most of the rest of it’s all right.   A modern Sherlock ought to have a much harder time what with all the pavement around, but somehow they manage.   I’m definitely looking forward to reading some more, despite the lack of fair play and the so-called logic in places where there ain’t none.   It also made me curious about the early Mormon settlements in Utah, was it like it’s portrayed (in a sudden, jarring leap mid-book from London to the American West)?

This will be my first Golden Age Bingo book – Color in the Title.