Well, he’s back. After being presumed dead for three years, Sherlock dramatically reappears. And it IS very dramatic: there’s enough of a narcissist in Sherlock to want to stage his entrance properly. This collection is my dad’s favorite; he says that this book features several years’ worth of ideas that percolated during Doyle’s Sherlock hiatus. It certainly has some memorable stories. “The Norwood Builder,” “The Solitary Cyclist,” “The Dancing Men,” “The Priory School,” “The Six Napoleons,” and “The Golden Pince-Nez” are all top-notch. “The Abbey Grange” is one of my all-time favorites, probably in my top 3, definitely top 5. The writing is solid, and Doyle uses humorous touches to great effect. And this collection is bookended by two drastic life events for Sherlock: “The Empty House” is Sherlock’s triumphant return from exile, and “The Second Stain” opens with Watson informing readers that Sherlock has retired to study bees on the Sussex Downs. So no more stories! Yeah, right. ;)

But it’s not all fun and games—this collection also exemplifies what is, for me, the single most frustrating element of these stories: the endings that get dropped. I’m going to make a Shakespeare analogy here, so hang tight. Spoilers for Romeo and Juliet. Okay, here goes: You know how Romeo and Juliet fall in love pretty early on in the story, and you spend the whole play rooting for them to be all right? And in Act IV, they have this scheme with Friar Lawrence, and you kind of let yourself think, just for a moment, that it will end happily, even though you know it won’t? You keep hoping that they’ll get their HEA? And then Act V happens, and it’s so sad, and you understand how and why they die, and despite the tragedy, you at least feel like you’ve followed them on their star-crossed journey? Well, Doyle’s story is the opposite of that. Spoilers for something that happens between “Memoirs” and “Return.” The Sign of Four was the great love story, with John and Mary falling in love and getting married. Now, in this collection, Mary has already died of something, and we don’t see it or know what it was, and we don’t see Watson’s reaction (or anyone else’s, for that matter). She’s dead when it opens, and she’s mentioned ONCE. And not even by name. So this is like Romeo and Juliet, if R&J ended with Act IV, and then the chorus came out with an epilogue in which they said, “Oops! They died, not sure how, too bad you missed it!!” This is THAT level of frustrating, for me. Here’s Mary’s great death scene from “Empty House”: “In some manner he had learned of my own sad bereavement, and his sympathy was shown in his manner rather than in his words. ‘Work is the best antidote to sorrow, my dear Watson,’ said he.” And that’s IT. “Norwood Builder” opens with Watson selling his practice and moving back in with Sherlock, and he finds out afterward that Sherlock had arranged for Watson to get a good price, so Sherlock is looking out for his widowed friend. So that was nice to see. And I know that Mary was more of a side character, so probably my Shakespeare comparison isn’t fair; these stories are not supposed to be about Watson’s marriage. They’re about Watson’s friendship with Holmes. But we, as readers, got to witness their courtship. We had the chance to root for Watson when he felt so unworthy of Mary’s hand. We had the chance to cheer when it looked like things would work out. And then, hey, guess what, she’s been dead for a while already. I’m sure it was done to make it easer for Sherlock and John to have their adventures, and by having it happen in the in-between time, Doyle can have a very sad and lonely Watson who is at his most vulnerable when Sherlock comes back. Even so, I feel cheated. Despite all this, still a very strong collection of stories, with much to recommend it. ( )

Spoiler alert: Sherlock Lives! Several years after he was presumed dead, tumbling down the Reichenbach Falls in a fight with his nemesis, Professor Moriarty, Sherlock Holmes returns to his old haunts and his old ways. Watson returns to his role as chronicler with relish, giving us 13 more tales of Holmes's superior crime-solving skills.

Of the stories in this collection, my favourites were "The Dancing Men" for the code, "The Missing Three-Quarter" for the solution (even if it was more difficult to guess than usual), and "The Second Stain" for its general perplexity. I was somewhat disappointed by "Charles Augustus Milverton" because he didn't really seem to get much screen time. After all, he is a ruthlessly scheming blackmailer, a man Holmes hates more than anyone else; I expect him to have more of a reign of terror over the course of the story (or indeed show up for more than one story).

This is an entertaining collection, although I felt that the pace was a bit slower than Adventures and Memoirs (the earlier short story collections). Still, it's always worth visiting Holmes and Watson at their Baker Street rooms. ( )

includes HOUN and The Return of Sherlock Holmes