It has been disliked by some over the years, in part due to the portrait of the Mormon's that it paints. What I've never been able to understand is why Watson misses the clues relating to Jefferson Hope's health. He is a Dr. after all and should have caught on I would think. Of course there is the mystery of the bull pup as well. Some say it's a gun and some that it's a reference to Watson being short tempered at the present. I think it's the latter myself. First he's shot at from ambush in the war and narrowly misses death. Then he contracts typhoid (the fever mentioned) then has the long land & sea voyage back to England. Between having PTSD and his health problems I don't wonder that Watson's nerves were a bit high strung at the time.
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