Review: NOT the quality one expects from S&S
Rating: 3 out of 5
Date: 12 13, 2012
REVISED: Many of these reviews sing the praises of the Sherlock Holmes stories (4 novels and 5 collections of short stories for a total of 9 books), and I join them in their acclamation. The stories truly are wonderful and Doyle's Sherlock Holmes well deserves 5 stars. But he also deserves better treatment than accorded here by Simon & Schuster.One expects a much higher quality product (nay, a virtually perfect one), from such a noted and highly-respected publisher. Yes, this set is free (to promote Robert Ryan's upcoming book), and I am appreciative, but I am also disappointed, because in this instance you get what you pay for, which is a surprisingly imperfect rendering of the text.Simon & Schuster seems to have merely repackaged existing, free, public domain, Project Gutenberg texts for this edition; that would explain the number of "Gutenbergish" (my word) imperfections sprinkled throughout. Also, vital pictorial representations (notably in "The Dancing Men") are omitted, and the font of the main text oddly switches from traditional serif to a less pleasant (in my opinion) computerish sans-serif.  (Given these flaws, I am surprised some reviewers so highly praise the formatting. But then again, I am also greatly surprised at more than a few of the 300+ so-called "reviews" for this product.)My advice? Since the book is a freebie, you have nothing to lose by downloading it--especially if you don't already have a complete ebook set of Sherlock Holmes. (And if you THINK you do, be certain yours includes ALL 12 stories in the "Case Book of Sherlock Holmes." Many previous ebook sets claiming to be complete had to omit all or part of it for copyright reasons.) Read it and enjoy this set  "as is" until such time as it is updated and corrected, or until you discover and purchase a better one. Other sets ARE available in the Kindle Store, even one for as little as a dollar, but like this set, each is imperfect in its own way, so be very careful when sampling and choosing. (I own and greatly enjoy a Bedford Park ebook set that, sadly, has not been available for quite some time, so I cannot recommend that one to you in lieu of this.)I am confident if enough people let S&S; know of the flaws marring this edition, eventually the set will be fixed; until then, we have to accept it as it is. Of course, no one disputes that Holmes is great, but unfortunately this particular compilation, as currently formatted, is not.