Fiction

The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes by Arthur Conan Doyle
5 The Adventure of the Gloria Scott
This seems to be regarded as a sort of "lower middle"-quality Holmes tale, based on rankings I've compiled, which is interesting because it probably speaks to what people want from these stories. As a detective tale, it's a bit rubbish — there's a mystery, but Holmes only solves a minor part of it before he's literally handed a letter with the explanation (even if he hadn't solved anything, that letter would have come into his possession). But as a story in its own right, it's got some nice atmosphere and some exciting piracy-esque elements. And so I think we see how it ends up in the middle, because I imagine some must dislike it for being a poor detective story, while others simply enjoy it for what it is.