As a rule, the more bizarre a thing is, the less mysterious it proves to be. It is your commonplace, featureless crimes which are really puzzling, just as a commonplace face is the most difficult to identify. 
 Who doesn't know Sherlock Holmes these days? Even if not everyone might be familiar with the original version invented by Arthur Conan Doyle, Mr. Holmes has become such a legend in his own right, a development fed and supported by numerous stage, screen and radio adaptions, that it is nearly impossible to hear the word 'detective' without immediately associating Sherlock Holmes. 
 'The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes' is a collection of altogether twelve short stories, published as the third part of the Sherlock Holmes series following Doyle's novels "A Study in Scarlet" and "The Sign of Four". Not without reason do many readers consider this collection to be Doyle's masterpiece, myself included. It simply was no masterpiece which absolutely thrilled or stunned me. Blame it on me or my inability to read all the stories from this collection in less than four months, but a lot of the fun about Holmes' and Watson's adventures was deprived from the novel by repeating exactly the same concept in each and every one of those stories. 
 Let's take a look at the short stories itself, which may very well represent the very essence of Doyle's works in the Sherlock Holmes canon. Beginning with A Scandal in Bohemia and concluding with The Adventure of the Copper Beeches, Doyle invented two famous female characters frequently associated with the stories about Holmes: Irene Adler and Violet Hunter. Both may be considered ahead of their times, surprisingly independent and brave. The other characters Doyle brought into play during the other ten stories were not quite as memorable, however. The Red-Headed League turned out to be a sweet little short story which isn't very outstanding in the Sherlock Holmes series because of its predictability, but still includes some interesting quotes and follows a suspense-packed plot with a conclusion which will keep you turning the pages ... just as The Boscombe Valley Mystery, an interesting mystery story about a man being suspected of having murdered his father, consisting of fast-paced dialogues and an exciting turning point. Everyone seems to have guessed the ending correctly before reading it - everyone except for me -, which may be the reason for why I liked it so much. 
 A Case of Identity was far off being nearly as intriguing - I have written a full review for this story here - while The Man with the Twisted Lip emerged as a really good short story with an interesting twist I would never have figured out on my own. In addition, Arthur Conan Doyle included some interesting material surrounding Sherlock's drug addiction here, and once again, he masterfully explored the friendship between Sherlock and Watson. Afterwards, a story about the influence of the Ku Klux Klan, The Five Orange Pips, eloquently narrated by Watson as usual, once again followed the pattern of a classic Holmes tale with an interesting plot and new layers of depth to the character of Sherlock Holmes. Sadly enough, it wasn't as unique as Doyle wanted the story to appear. 
 Another rather interesting little story, but not outstanding or mind-blowing was The Adventure of the Blue Carbuncle, enjoyable, but nothing more. Therein, Holmes has to deal with a stolen carbuncle appearing in the throat of a Christmas goose, entering on the search for the real culprit. The Speckled Band is one of the most well-known stories in this collection, and the hype this short story received is understandable due to its complex mystery and the stunning conclusion. I liked the story myself. However, never before has Doyle confronted us with so many plot holes, which ultimately disappointed me. A story full of potential which was stripped from its credibility for the sake of cutting it short - the story certainly provided home for more potential than some of Doyle's full-length novels. The Adventure of the Engineer's Thumb deals with an engineer whose thumb is chopped off, stinging Sherlock to work out the background of this new case. 
 The Noble Bachelor focuses on the disappearance of a Lord's bride immediately after the wedding ceremony. Quite an entertaining story with snarky Sherlock Holmes at his best, and a stunning conclusion which once again made the reader feel as dumbfounded as John Watson about Sherlock's investigative talents. The second-last story, The Adventure of the Beryl Coronet, deals with the damage mysteriously inflicted to the coronet of a British earl, and, finally, during the conclusion of the collection Doyle rises to fresh heights of his writing with The Adventure of the Copper Beeches, breathing life into a suspenseful story surrounding a woman who assumes work at the mansion of a strange couple with dark secrets. 
 While most of these stories are independently enjoyable and memorable on their own, added up on each other they amount to a collection of great mysteries Doyle could have been proud of. However, for me, the problem in getting through the anthology proved to be the similar execution of each and every story. All of them started with Sherlock and Watson sitting or conversing in Sherlock's home, right before the case's new victim appeared - in most cases on the story's second page. After elaborately recounting their experiences in a way so explicitly formulated that they might have been the starting-point of a story without Sherlock or Watson being present, the second part of all the stories mainly consisted in Sherlock and Watson calling upon the location of the occurence, right before the third part was used to allow Sherlock to narrate the real events leading up to the upcoming of the mystery based on his investigations. Now and then, the second step was even skipped if Sherlock started the investigation without Watson (who was the first-person narrator, which resulted in us only being allowed to look at Sherlock's approach if Watson was present as well), and it just bothered me to read the same concept over and over again, only embedded in different plotlines. And, just as a footnote, someone should have told Sherlock not to consider every single one of his cases as the greatest challenge of his career. It became repetitive after a certain point. 
 However, "The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes" remains a great work and can be seen as a tribute to the wonderful and world-wide famous characters of Holmes and Watson. My only disappointment results in my shattered hopes that Mycroft - Holmes' brother - or Moriarty - Holmes' archenemy - might be introduced during one of these stories, but my anticipation of meeting them obviously needs to wait slightly longer. Up next on my Sherlock Holmes quest: The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes.