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Well, I liked the part that focused on Holmes and Watson and on their investigation - though the whole thing was fairly obvious from the get-go - and I also loved that it explained why Holmes was so obsessed with catching Moriarty that he sacrificed everything to it. The rest though...
A whole half of the book was set in the past, explaining the background of the secondary/guest characters. And stuff like that is so not my cuppa. I didn't like it in "A Study in Scarlet" and I didn't like it here. It would've made a good short story but in the context of the Sherlock Holmes canon, not so much. I really don't like it when a titular character becomes a guest star in their own book.
To sum it up, it's good to read this to understand Holmes' obsession with Moriarty. Other than that, I have to agree that novels weren't Doyle's strength, his short stories are much better.