Reviews

Gr 7 Up-Four short stories of mystery and intrigue by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle are performed radio theater style by the St. Charles Players: "The Adventure of the Speckled Band," "The Adventure of the Dancing Men," "A Scandal in Bohemia," and "The Adventure of the Devil's Foot." The narration is acceptable, although some characters sound flat and their British accent is too obviously forced. However, this detracts little from the overall entertainment value of the stories. The overall aural quality could be improved; a slight hissing can be heard throughout the narration. Though at times Holmes comes across as haughty, listeners become caught up in learning how he ingeniously solves the cases using clues that Watson, the other investigators, and most listeners miss. Fine for individual or group listening, The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes could be used for entertainment or for a unit on the mystery genre in English classes. The lack of strong female characters in these stories may warrant including alternate classic mysteries with strong women, such as Simon Brett's Mrs. Pargeter, Agatha Christie's Miss Marple, Heron Carvic's Miss Seeton, or Dorothy Gilman's Mrs. Pollifax. A nice feature of this package is that each short story is completed with one cassette. Unless you have a great demand for classic mysteries, this audiobook is an additional purchase.-Sarah Smith, Harrison Community Library, MI

This is a continuation of the radio plays produced by the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC). Clive Merrison is an excellent Holmes, and Michael Williams portrays an intelligent and amiable Watson. BBC Radio has dramatized all 56 of Conan Doyle's Holmes stories and two of the novels; they are working on the two remaining novels. In this volume, "A Scandal in Bohemia," "The Red-Headed League," "A Case of Identity," and "The Bascombe Valley Mystery" are presented as 45-minute radio plays. The plays are "imaginatively faithful" to the original works, according to one of the producers, with changes added as needed to clarify the stories. A must for most public libraries.‘Theresa Connors, Arkansas Tech Univ., Russellville