The Great Adventures of Sherlock Holmes

Arthur Conan Doyle's The Great Adventures of Sherlock Holmes is a collection of classic detective stories for 10 year olds, told by Holmes's loyal friend Dr Watson.

What happens

The first case starts with Violet Smith, a young music teacher. Every Saturday she cycles a lonely country road to the station, and every Saturday a man with a dark beard follows her on his own bicycle. When she slows, he slows. When she turns and charges at him, he flees!

Holmes reads her in seconds. The scuffed soles of her shoes mean cycling. Her fingertips mean music, not typing. Then he sends Watson off to watch the road, and tells him afterwards that he's done "remarkably badly" (poor Watson).

Holmes isn't quite the stuffy genius you might expect, either. He comes back from his own trip to the country with a cut lip, having thoroughly enjoyed a fist fight in a village pub.

The next story brings in Charles Augustus Milverton, a blackmailer Holmes calls the worst man in London. He's smiling and smooth-voiced, and he has a revolver in his coat.

This is Conan Doyle's own writing, not a retelling, so the language is old-fashioned. The sentences are long and you'll meet words like "ostler" and "dog-cart". A strong reader who likes working things out will be fine. A less confident one might enjoy sharing the first story with you.

Worth knowing before you hand it over

These are real crime stories. In the first, a young woman is kidnapped and forced into a wedding, a young stable lad is clubbed over the head and a man is shot in front of everyone. The second is all about blackmail and ruined reputations. Watson tells it calmly, but it's grown-up crime.

If your reader is very sensitive to violence, you might start with something gentler. If they love a puzzle and like to feel clever, Holmes is perfect company.

What to read next

For a younger detective with the same old-fashioned feel, try The Body under the Piano next. It's 1902 in Torquay, and shy Aggie Morton makes friends with a very tidy boy who counts in French, right before a body turns up.