I've read all fifty volumes and I must say that I'm REALLY impressed with the series, although I was less than thrilled with the drawing style at first (as I'm more into really realistic drawings), then I really got into it - especially the enigmas at hand. The first volumes often cover closed room mysteries or impossible cases but they soon evolve into cases where you have to discover who's the culprit by dismantling the alibis and whatnot - but in the meantime, you will be sure to be EXTREMELY surprised, especially with the way crimes were committed and the way the crime scene were tampered with to make them appear unsolvable.
Character design is very good and provide excellent settings for drama, slight romance and most of all, comedy. We follow the series through different circumstances - according to who is accompanying Conan, be it Kogoro Mouri, the Detective Kids, Heiji Hattori or with the "anti-Black Organization squad". It is not a series that will stretch eternally. There is a path but the development is quite slow.
But in the meantime, the plot turns will be most likely, if not surely, to REALLY surprise you, as the setting for a hypothetical final confrontation and the solution to Shinichi/Conan's plight draws near.
By then, you'll have learnt a truckload of miscellaneous facts about science, biology, history nature, logic and other fields, some of which give a good insight to our world's secrets and Japan's way of life.
It is a must-read, especially if you're fond of mystery cases and seemingly impossible crimes. God knows I'm going to read it to the end.