Sherlock Holmes and the Brutal Mormons

Here is a brand new post. You may have heard but there are the new Sherlock Holmes moviecoming out in the next few months...it stars Jude Law and Robert Downey Jr. I am pretty interested in the movie as I love the Sherlock Holmes character and I think Downey can do a good job with it.

Growing up, I read a few of these novels and I decided to read the very first Sherlock Holmes book, A Study in Scarlet, written by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. You get to read the first time that Sherlock Holmes meets Dr. Watson (Dr. Watson was a doctor who just served in Afghanistan in the late 1800s and he was looking for a roommate and he was introduced to Holmes). You also learn that Holmes is very good at knowing people by just watching them for a minute. It is interesting to see their relationship develop.

This case centers around two murders in the London area. As they focus on suspects, the book then shifts to Salt Lake City, Utah. It goes into a story of man who was rescued by the Mormons as they were traveling across the country to find Utah. The man never becomes a mormon but is accepted by the mormons because he is a hardworker and he doesn't cause trouble. Trouble begins though when his daughter plans to marry a nonMormon. The book includes a visit by Brigham Young to the man's home where he orders the man to have his daughter marry a mormon. Basically, the mormons keep pressuring the girl and the father to follow their ways or suffer the consequences.

I don't want to give away the ending and the book...but it is interesting that such an iconic character such as Sherlock Holmes began his 'career' with mormons and their murderous ways. The book is over a 120 years old so it was quite an accomplishment for Sir Doyle to use London and early Salt Lake City as a backdrop to this first book. It is an entertaining read to see how it is all tied together and how justice is served.