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Come and see the Softer Side of Sherlock Holmes! The stories in this collection focus on the revelation that: "Sherlock Holmes! He's Just Like Us!" He makes mistakes! He judges too quickly! He was once young and went to school! He had friends! He has a brother (who is, as Sherlock readily admits, smarter than he is, just without his ambition)!

We (shockingly!) essentially find out that he is a human being. We see Sherlock has a family, and has interests other than things that have to do with his work. He's a man living in his time and place in the world and is both affected by it and engaged by it- he does not live in a vaccum. He reads about politics, seems to understand the colonial system and has opinions about it, and reads other books. He does enjoy every day things, a beautiful day, a picnic, and can even be poetical (yes, really, there's a story where he philosophizes about flowers).

But lest you think this is all the mushy stuff- the last story in this collection, "The Final Problem," introduces Professor Moriarty. And that's anything but mushy! And really, the other stories aren't really either- its just the presence of much sentiment at all seems rather unusual. There's the requisite amount of chases, nighttime frights, fights, intrigue, and murder, as ever.

My favorites were "The Yellow Face," "The Adventure of the Crooked Man," (which has a dramatization appearance by Brian Blessed, btw), and "The Final Problem".

A must read for those Holmes fans that like to see the charcter develop as well as solve the mysteries.