Book Review: "The Crimes of Dr. Watson" by Duane Swierczynski

The Crimes of Dr. Watson by Duane Swierczynski
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Amazon Book Description

After the rooms at 221B Baker Street are set ablaze—and a mutilated corpse is discovered in the wreckage—Dr. John H. Watson is arrested and imprisoned at Coldbath Fields penitentiary. Writing from a cramped and dimly lit cell, Watson describes the mysterious events leading up to his arrest. Someone has been mailing him a series of cryptic warnings. His lifelong friend Sherlock Holmes has vanished in the raging waters of Reichenbach Falls. And Professor Moriarty’s criminal empire is expanding across Europe and throughout America.

In a desperate attempt to clear his good name, Watson has compiled twelve clues that may prove his innocence, including:

     •  The front page of a newspaper from Thousand Oaks, California
     •  A catalog of Victorian fashions and merchandise
     •  An empty matchbook containing cryptic handwritten notes
     •  The complete text of “The Final Problem,” Watson’s famous account of the death of Sherlock Holmes
     •  Plus a theater ticket, an arrest report, a railroad timetable, and more

All twelve clues have been painstakingly reproduced for this volume, along with the complete text of Watson’s manuscript and specially commissioned illustrations by Homes aficionado Clint Hansen.


From the "Interactive Mysteries Series" this is an incredibly fun read. You are faced with reading about a plea from Dr. Watson to an investigator in Pennsylvania to help solve a crime for which he has been sentenced to jail but did not commit. Along the way you are given a set of removable clues that you will use to piece together the who the real murderer was that committed the crimes that Dr. Watson has been convicted. Being a Sherlock Holmes enthusiast, this was great entertainment for me and I thoroughly enjoyed the read. There is also a Dracula mystery and a Batman mystery available as part of this series of interactive mysteries.