The Casebook of Sherlock Holmes, Volume I

By: Arthur Conan Doyle

Narrated by: David Timson

Length: 4 hrs and 41 mins

Publisher's summary

These six cases are among the last undertaken by Sherlock Holmes before he retired to the Sussex downs. However, the problems facing the sleuth are as diverse and challenging as ever. What with seeking the whereabouts of the stolen Mazarin Diamond, discovering the importance of being called Garrideb, encountering a mysterious murder on Thor Bridge, searching for eternal youth and the threat of a vampire in Sussex, there is no sign of Holmes' deductive powers slowing down.

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©2007 Naxos Rights International (P)2007 Naxos Rights International

The True Sherlock

This is Sherlock Holmes come to life! I've listened to all of David Timson's Sherlock Homes episodes and if there were a hundred episodes I would buy them all. Every story is about an hour long and the violin music thrown in makes it perfect. Hopefully there will be a Volume II soon.

One of the Best!

I have listened to almost all of David Timson's Sherlock Holmes audiobooks and this one is by far the bast I've heard yet! I really liked the selection of stories:

- The Problem of Thor Bridge
- The Adventure of the Mazarine Stone
- The Adventure of the Creeping Man
- The Adventure of the Sussex Vampire
- The Adventure of the Three Garridebs
- The Adventure of the Blanched Soldier

My favourite by far was "The Adventure of the Creeping Man" - I found it a bit fantastical, but liked it more because of that!

Flawed on multiple levels

I'm posting the same review for the two parts of this book, because (criticism #1) it's a money-grubbing move to split up what is basically a short to average-length collection of short stories to make consumers pay for it twice. I have a number of criticisms of this audiobook, the most major of which is not the fault of the performer or the publisher:

1) See above

2) The production of this audiobook has some odd and unnecessary flourishes. Stories open and close, and sections are divided, by a chamber orchestra that serves no narrative purpose. Also, when a character is reading a letter written by someone else, the narrating character's voice fades out and the letter-writer's character's voice (all read by the same actor, mind you) and another character's voice are superimposed on top of it in a weird fade in/fade out effect that is just distracting.

3) David Timson, the actor/reader, is skilled at assuming a variety of voices, male and female. Unfortunately, for Sherlock Holmes, he chooses to assume a truly annoying, nasal voice that makes you instantly dislike the character. I'm spoiled by Stephen Fry's superior characterization, but even if I'd never heard Fry read as Holmes, I think I would have disliked this characterization. I'd otherwise rate his performance a 4 or 5.

4) Speaking of Stephen Fry, the only reason I bought this split up audiobook is that this last collection was omitted from his amazing but inaccurately titled complete Sherlock Holmes audiobook collection. I had assumed the omission was due to copyright restrictions, since until very recently this last collection in the canon was not in public domain, but now that I've actually slogged through it, I think I may understand other reasons why Fry may have declined to include it in his masterwork. These stories were written in the last decade or so of Doyle's life, and unfortunately many of them show him to be at the very nadir of his creative abilities. "The Adventure of the Three Garridebs" is basically a tired reboot of "The Red Headed League", "The Adventure of the Creeping Man" is gripping up until you find out what is going on and then it turns into something truly stupid out of the lame pulp fiction of the day, and "The Adventure of the Mazarin Stone" is so staggeringly bad it actually reads like a Mad Magazine parody of a Sherlock Holmes story. It's hard to pick a "worst of" in this collection, but the last one mentioned is in close competition with "The Adventure of the Three Gables", which features a black character who is depicted in such horrifyingly racist and degrading stereotypes that I almost didn't make it any farther through the audiobook. My favorite story was maybe the most unusual in that if doesn't feature Dr. Watson and is set during Holmes' retirement, "The Adventure of the Lion's Mane."

Overall, I just can't recommend this split up audiobook. If you are a hard core lover of Doyle's Holmes cannon, get a public domain copy of the book and skip past the bad stories. David Timson contributes his own "bonus" story that he wrote himself, but as I don't have much interest in the many pastiches written after Doyle, I didn't listen to it. Sorry, David.

The Casebook of Sherlock Holmes, volume 1

Superb stories, and performance. I never tire of Conan Doyle stories of Sherlock Holmes. Although I really like British productions I often have difficulty catching the odd word, particularly on their DVDs. Amazingly I get every word spoken by David Timson which is a bonus that goes along with his excellent narration. I have a large collection of Sherlock Holmes by all kinds of narrators and to me David Timson is the best.

Very disappointing

I have been working my way through the Sherlock Holmes canon and absolutely loving the productions narrated by the wonderful Derek Jacobi. The stories in this last collection are not as intriguing to me as the earlier stories and novels. Further, they are really let down by this edition. The music is jarring and so unnecessary and the performance is ok but I find myself missing Derek Jacobi tremendously. I wish there were more Audible options for The Casebook of Sherlock Holmes. I would have loved Stephen Fry’s performance but unfortunately, this collection is not included in the six volumes of Holmes stories in Fry’s Audible set. I want to finish all the stories so I’ll undoubtedly finish this as well as Volume 2 but it is a slog rather than a joy.

A great afternoon

Spending an afternoon with Sherlock Holmes and Dr Watson can't be beat. The part that makes each story exceptional is the reading by David Timson. He is as much a professional as Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, Sherlock Holmes or Dr Watson. Bravo!

Meh

I love Sherlock Holmes. However, this rendition is miserable to listen to with Timson's interpretation of Holmes' voice being nasal & whiny (think fingernails on a chalkboard). Of course, it is hard to compete with Derek Jacobi's brilliant performances of the Sherlock Holmes stories and his interpretation of Holmes & Watson. Sadly, Jacobi's rendition of The Casebook of Shelock Holmes is not available in the US.

Great story. Ok narration

Story is great but narrator lacked depth of Stephen Fry. It was still worth a credit though.

HOLMES RULES

The narration is spectacular. The violin music is wonderful. Sherlock as always is A DUDE.

always one of my favorites.

can listen to these books over and over, they never get old. Greats books to have.

Not Doyle's best

I have all of the Conan Doyle's Sherlock Holmes storys on my ipod now and I must say that this series of storys is my least favorite. Don't get me wrong, compaired to a lot of books this is still very good but I don't think that Doyle is quiet on the money in this case.

As for the reader, he is good without being anything special.

Over all a good book and reader but not quite up to the usual standards of Holmes and Watson.