I'd read The Speckled Band before, but never any other Holmes story. This one was right up my alley with a whole bunch of imperialism stuff.
But even without, it was a fun Holmes story. What made it neat for my reading, and which is why it ended up on my reading list, is because it has an aboriginal in it. He's the one who commits murder and attempted murder, not the Englishman that he's affiliated with, which keeps the white man's hands clean in this one.
So, in this story, Watson goes ga-ga over the woman whose case they're working on, but since she stands to inherit a whole bunch of money, he's depressed because she's way out of his league. Consequently, Watson is delighted when the thief throws the entire treasure overboard during a river chase down the Thames because now he can marry her. Ugh! I realize it fits perfectly with Victorian sentiments about class, marriage, women etc., but I still get disgusted reading that kind of drivel.
Holmes is his typical logical, dramatic, and ennuistic (is that a word?) self though, which of course is meant to counter Watson's realism and is waht the stories are all about. Holmes is why Conan Doyle had to resurrect him, even though he detested the character and didn't wish to write any more Sherlock Holmes stories after the first.