Mastermind How to Think Like Sherlock Holmes

*A tad disappointed* I waited for almost a year to read this book since it was on my 2016 reading list and had others before. Since it came out I got it on my kindle and had very high expectations. I made my self ideas of what the book would be about, and as the title suggested, I expected a crash course on understanding the mental process of "deduction" that distinguishes mr. Holmes. To start my review, I have to say that it felt as if this was a PhD or a Master Thesis on Conan Doyle's character and his interpretations in different situations with a bit of a re-write in order to fit a larger commercial audience. For starters I found it a bit annoying that you must have read ALL of Sherlocks Holmes collection to understand what she was trying to explain. And regarding the analysis of the methods? they were very superficial, hard to emulate and were more focused in the "mindset" or mind-process Sherlock was having, than a good explanation in how to achieve or start to train certain processes. That is why I felt that this book was more of a PhD thesis regarding Sherlock Holmes rather than a non-fiction book. Why didn't I give it one star? because of her research and bibliography. You can literally skip to the last pages and see the books used in the research and from that you'll gain more value than the book it self.

Great intro to psychology through the lens of Sherlock Holmesian style of thinking.

With great expectation comes great disappointment. After buying this book, I opened the plastic wrap with as much excitement as a kid opening a box of 25 praline chocolates, not knowing what to expect. True, there were snippets of Sherlock stories explained with social psychology theories (E.g. availability heuristic, stereotype threat...) but the writing failed to keep me hooked. I am not sure what I have learnt from this book, other than the importance of having a quiet, reflective mind and being one who is very observant and imaginative. Good pointers but needless to have to pay and plough through the entire book to uncover.

I love Sherlock Holmes. I wanted to love this book, too, and expected I would at least like it, based on the blurb and the subtitle. The author obviously loves Holmes, too, which saved this from being a one-star review, because I did enjoy the excerpts from Doyle's stories. Regardless, I gave up about a third of the way through because the book was just so padded and I didn't care enough about thinking like Sherlock Holmes to continue slogging through it.