The Adventure of Wisteria Lodge (His Last Bow #1) by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle

 This book is considered a Mystery. 

It is also considered Fiction, Crime, Mystery Thriller, Historical Fiction, and Detective. It is a short story and considered a Classic because of its author.

"A chaotic case, my dear Watson."

The Adventure of Wisteria Lodge was originally published in "A Reminiscence of Sherlock Holmes". It was also published in "His Last Bow", a collection of short stories. 

Dr John Scott Eccles needs guidance. He spent the night at Wisteria Lodge, with Mr Aloysius Garcia and his servants. All was perfectly fine until Dr Eccles woke up the next morning to find Mr Garcia and everyone in his house missing. The house was completely empty.

Mr Eccles had only just met Mr Garcia through an acquaintance, and though they formed an unlikely friendship, Mr Eccles didn't know a thing about the man. He could tell that something was amiss. Mr. Garcia was distracted the whole night, and the whole house had a sombre tone when Mr Eccles arrived. After a servant handed him a note, the mood grew even bleaker. 

Not far behind Mr Eccles were the police. They have found Mr Garcia; he is dead. And their prime suspect is the only other person they can find who was at the house that night, Mr John Scott Eccles. 

The Review

This is one of the first Sherlock Holmes books I have ever read. I have watched many TV movies and, of course, the Robert Downey Jr. movies, and the Benedict Cumberbatch TV series. But I had never sat down and read any of the stories. I found this novel very interesting, and Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's writing style was interesting as well. 

I found it very interesting that Sherlock Holmes goes to the house, sees what little is left behind and can make all kinds of deductions to solve the case! It is quite amazing how his mind seems to work and how everything just falls together. I think that is the beauty of the classics. Everything gets wrapped up in a nice little bow. 

SPOILER ALERT

Mr Holmes and Dr Watson go to Wisteria Lodge. There they find a dead "White Cock", a bucket of blood and some burnt bones. While all this seems very strange, no one can seem to make heads or tails of it. The inspector, who accompanied the pair, goes on his way, and for the next few days Dr Watson believes that Sherlock Holmes is making absolutely no headway whatsoever on the mysterious case. 

This couldn't be further from the truth. In fact, Sherlock has it completely solved in just a few days. His first order of business is to track down the sender of the mysterious note. By now, he knows who he is and where she lives, and he is quite eager to talk to her and find out just what role she played in the whole ordeal. However, when they come to a little inn in Esher, they find that Miss Brunett, a governess (nanny) for the Henderson family (of High Gable Grange) has also gone missing. 

Miss Brunett, who is quickly found, is taken to Sherlock and Watson. She had been drugged by Mr Henderson and ushered into a train carriage, but she struggled against him and escaped. She sits down with Sherlock and tells him her story. Mr Henderson turned out to be Don Murillo, a tyrant from Central America. He had been overthrown and escaped to Europe. Miss Brunett, who was really Senora Durando) and Mr Garcia recognised the man. Together they hatched a plot for revenge. Señora Durando got hired as the nanny for the Henderson children, and she was reporting on his comings and goings to Mr Garcia, who was supposed to kill him out of revenge. But Don Murillo learned of their plan and killed Mr Garcia and held Señora Durando (Miss Brunett) hostage. 

Rating and Recommendation

I gave this book four and a half stars. But it will go down to four stars on Goodreads. I think I may be a bit biased by the fact that it is a Sherlock Holmes short story. But I loved it. The nature of Sherlock Holmes is that you're confused half the time, and then he spells everything out as if, " Duh, why didn't I see that!" when in reality you really can't solve it along with them. That part is a shame; I would like to be able to solve the mystery along with Holmes and Watson. But besides that, the story was great; it was entertaining and pulled you in, and of course, leaves you shaking your head, "How does he do it!"

I own His Last Bow; it was the first book I bought of Sherlock Holmes, and that's how I read The Adventure of Wisteria Lodge. After reading the first few stories in this collection, I went out and bought a complete works collection of books. And since then I have asked for (and been gifted) two different print copies of the complete works of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, as well as a special edition complete collection of Sherlock Holmes and a special edition illustrated book showcasing the illustrations that were used when printing the Sherlock Holmes short stories in Collier's Magazine and The Strand Magazine. 

Conclusion

If you like any mystery novels whatsoever, you NEED to give Sir Arthur Conan Doyle a try. As I said previously, 4.5 stars may be a bit generous, but it is very close to four stars on most platforms. And Doyle is one of the kings of mysteries, especially from that time period. I think most people would agree that Sherlock Holmes is a classic no matter what story you read. 

This is usually where I provide links to the book so you can easily find them. This is a unique situation. I searched Amazon specifically for The Adventure of Wisteria Lodge. They have some, they have some in paperback and ebook format, etc. But none of them seemed official, and I had a hard time deciphering which were being sold reputably and which were reproductions. So I won't be linking any of those. (You can simply search the title on Amazon if you wish.) So my next idea was to link His Last Bow. The lowest price for The Adventure of Wisteria Lodge in print was a little under eight dollars. I figured His Last Bow would be cheaper and provide more stories. (I was wrong.) 

My best advice is this. I paid $10 at Chapters (Indigo) for His Last Bow. It wasn't on sale; it was just one of those front table books they sell cheap to try and getchya! So I am going to link to the version of His Last Bow that I own. Again, keep in mind that Amazon is asking $35, when I bought it for $10. 

Note: Along with owning a large collection of physical books, I also bought the complete collection of Sherlock Holmes on Amazon for 0.99, and it includes His Last Bow. You can find that here. 

You can also find the story typed up for free here. This includes the pages from Collier's Magazine. You can also find The Strand Magazine publications and illustrations here.

* Book cover image retrieved from GoodReads. All rights belong to the author and/or publisher. 
* All the "stickers" in this blog were provided by Bookish (presented by NetGalley).

* Knife Photo via Pixabay, and used under the Pixabay Content License
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