After trying to kill off his famous literary creation in the story "The Final Problem," Doyle found himself pressured to bring the famous detective back from the dead. Which he does in the famous story "The Empty House." This story opens this collection.
I personally remember many of these stories from the Jeremy Brett adaptations on PBS. "The Norwood Builder," "The Dancing Men," and "The Solitary Cyclist" fit this bill. I appreciate the value of Holmes doing his work in London, but I prefer the stories where Doyle is able to get the detective to the smaller, rural areas of England.
There is little in the way of character development in these stories, for either Holmes or Watson, as Doyle seems to have settled into a formula for his short stories. That is not to say that the stories themselves are not strong, but the lack of an Irene Adler or Professor Moriarity is noticeable.
As a university professor, I enjoyed the plot (and resolution) of "The Three Students," although "The Golden Pince-Nez" and "The Second Stain" are among the most enjoyable stories in this collection.
Source: Unabridged audio via LibriVox, and BooksSHouldBeFree.Com, a site that records audio of public domain books. Despite the "amateur" status of the recording, the audio quality and narration is very strong. Surprisingly strong, as a matter of fact.
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