A Scandal in Bohemia

A Scandal in Bohemia

 "Ignorance caused by visual observation rather than a comprehensive" - Sherlock Holmes

"A Scandal in Bohemia" was the first of Arthur Conan Doyle's 56 Sherlock Holmes short stories to be published in The Strand Magazine and the first Sherlock Holmes story illustrated by Sidney Paget. (Two of the four Sherlock Holmes novels – A Study in Scarlet and The Sign of the Four – preceded the short story cycle). Doyle ranked "A Scandal in Bohemia" fifth in his list of his twelve favourite Holmes stories.

While the currently married Dr. Watson is paying Holmes a visit, Holmes's called upon by a masked gentleman introducing himself as Count Von Kramm, an agent for a wealthy client. However, Holmes quickly deduce that he's in fact Wilhelm Gottsreich Sigismond Von Ormstein, Grand Duke of Cassel-Felstein and the hereditary King of Bohemia. The King admit this, tearing off his mask.

It transpires that the King is to become engaged to Clotilde Lothman von Saxe-Meiningen, a young Scandinavian princess. However, he had five years previous to the events of the story had a liaison with an American opera singer, Irene Adler, while she was serving a term as prima donna of the Imperial Opera of Warsaw, who has since then retired to London. Fearful that should the strictly principled family of his fiancée learn of this impropriety the marriage would be called off he had sought to regain letters and a photograph of Adler and himself together, which he had sent to her during their relationship as a token. The King's agents have tried to recover the photograph through sometimes forceful means, burglary, stealing her luggage, and waylaying her. An offer to pay for the photograph and letters is also refused. With Adler threatening to send them to his future in-laws, which Von Ormstein presumes is to prevent him marrying any other woman, he makes the incognito visit to Holmes to request his help in locating and obtaining the photograph.

The photograph is described to Holmes as a cabinet (5½ by 4 inches) and therefore too bulky for a lady to carry upon her person. The King gives Holmes £1,000 (£80,900 today) to cover any expenses, while saying that he "would give one of [his] provinces" to have the photograph back. Holmes asks Dr. Watson to join him at 221B Baker Street at 3 o'clock the following afternoon.

The next morning, Holmes goes out to Adler's house, disguised as a drunken out-of-work groom. He discovers from the local stable workers that Adler has a gentleman friend, the lawyer Godfrey Norton of the Middle Temple, who calls at least once a day. On this particular day, Norton comes to visit Adler, and soon afterwards, takes a cab to the Church of St. Monica in Edgware Road. Minutes later, the lady herself gets in her landau, bound for the same place. Holmes follows in a cab and, upon arriving, finds himself dragged into the church to be a witness to Norton and Adler's wedding. Curiously, they go their separate ways after the ceremony.

Meanwhile, Watson has been waiting for Sherlock to arrive, and when Sherlock Holmes finally arrives, he starts laughing. Watson is confused and asks what is so funny, Sherlock then recounts his tale and comments he thought the situation and position he was in at the wedding was amusing. He also asks whether or not Watson is willing to participate in a scheme to figure out where the picture is hidden in Adler's house. Watson agrees, and Holmes changes into another disguise as a clergyman. The duo depart Baker Street for Adler's house.

When Holmes and Watson arrive, a group of jobless men meander throughout the street. When Adler's coach pulls up, Holmes enacts his plan. A fight breaks out between the men on the street over who gets to help Adler. Holmes rushes into the fight to protect Adler, and is seemingly struck and injured. Adler takes him into her sitting room, where Holmes motions for her to have the window opened. As Holmes lifts his hand, Watson recognizes the signal and tosses in a plumber's smoke rocket. While smoke billows out of the building, Watson shouts "FIRE!" The cry is echoed up and down the street.

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The Valley of Fear

The Valley of Fear

 "When water is near and a weight is missing, it is not a very far-fetched supposition that something has been sunk in the water" - Sherlock Holmes

The Valley of Fear is the fourth and final Sherlock Holmes novel by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. It's based on the real life exploits of the Molly Maguires and Pinkerton agent James McParland. The story was first published in the Strand Magazine between September 1914 and May 1915, and the first book edition was published in New York on 27 February 1915.

Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson receive a letter from an informant known by the pseudonym Fred Porlock. Porlock is part of Professor Moriarty's criminal organization. The letter's written in a numeric code, and Holmes realises that the numbers refer to words in a book, by page and column. They decode the letter (finding the book in question to be Whitaker's Almanack), which warns that John Douglas of Birlstone House is about to be murdered.

After they have deciphered the message, Inspector McDonald of Scotland Yard comes to consult Holmes. McDonald is astonished when he sees the message, because it has pre-empted his news: a man called John Douglas has indeed been mysteriously killed in Sussex. McDonald demands to know the true identity of the informant who predicted the crime, but Holmes does not know it, because he promised not to try and find out who 'Porlock' really is. Holmes can only tell McDonald that the informant works for Professor Moriarty.

McDonald, Holmes and Watson go to the Birlstone Manor House in Sussex, working with Scotland Yard and beginning their investigation along with Inspector White Mason and other officers from the local police force. At least five people were in the house at the time of the murder. John Douglas, Ivy Douglas (his wife), Ames (a butler), Cecil Barker (a friend) and Mrs Allen (a servant). Cecil Barker is an old friend of Douglas and had been intending to stay at Birlstone House for a few months on holiday. He had met Douglas in America many years before and become his mining partner as well as his friend.

The house is surrounded by a moat that's fed from a nearby stream. The moat is wide but only two or three feet deep, so no one can really swim (or drown) in it. The house has a drawbridge, which is lowered every morning and raised every night. Barker tells the detectives that Douglas locked all of the windows in the house every night, and that he felt safer when the drawbridge was raised. It is concluded that the murderer walked across the drawbridge and hid close to the house before it was raised. The murderer could not have entered the house after 6:30 pm, since at that time the drawbridge was up.

Douglas's body can only be identified by a strange brand on his arm, a circle with a triangle inside it. He has been shot in the head with a sawed-off shotgun, at close range, ruining his face and head. The investigators soon learn from Barker that Douglas' wedding ring is missing. It stayed on the same finger, under the nugget-ring he wore, which was found intact on the body. That means the assassin removed both rings, and stole one while replacing the other. The assassins also left a card reading "VV 341".

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The Adventure of the Dancing Men

The Adventure of the Dancing Men

"Forget the whole analysis in between and back to the beginning and the end only..."
  - Sherlock Holmes

The little dancing men are at the heart of a mystery which seems to be driving his young wife Elsie to distraction. He married her about a year ago, and until recently, everything was well. She is American, and before the wedding, she asked her husband-to-be to promise her never to ask about her past, as she had had some “very disagreeable associations” in her life, although she said that there was nothing that she was personally ashamed of. Mr. Cubitt swore the promise and, being an honor able English gentleman, insists on living by it, which is one of the thing causing difficulty at Ridling Thorpe Manor.

The trouble began when Elsie received a letter from the United States, which evidently disturbed her, then she threw the letter on the fire. When the dancing men appeared, sometimes on a piece of paper left on the sundial overnight, sometimes scrawled in chalk on a wall or door, even a window sill. Each time, their appearance has an obvious, terrifying effect on Elsie, but she won't tell her husband what is going on. Holmes tells Cubitt that he wants to see every occurrence of the dancing men. They are to be copied down and brought or sent to him at 221B Baker Street. Cubitt duly does this, and it provides Holmes with an important clue. Holmes comes to realize that it's a substitution cipher. He cracks the code by frequency analysis. The last of the messages conveyed by the dancing men is a particularly alarming one.

Holmes rushes down to Ridling Thorpe Manor only to find Cubitt dead of a bullet to the heart and his wife gravely wounded in the head. Inspector Martin of the Norfolk Constabulary believes that it is a murder-suicide, or will be if Elsie dies. She is the prime suspect in her husband’s death. Holmes sees things differently. Why is there a bullet hole in the windowsill, making a total of three shots, while Cubitt and his wife were each only shot once ? Why are only two chambers in Cubitt’s revolver empty? What is the large sum of money doing in the room ? The discovery of a trampled flowerbed just outside the window and the discovery of a shell casing therein confirm what Holmes has suspected: a third person was involved, and it's surely the one who has been sending the curious dancing-man messages.

Holmes know certain things that Inspector Martin doeesn't. He seemingly picks the name “Elrige’s” out of the air, and Cubitt’s stable boy recognizes it as a local farmer’s name. Holmes quickly writes a message — in dancing men characters — and sends the boy to Elrige’s Farm to deliver it to a lodger there, whose name he has also apparently picked out of the air. Of course, Holmes has learned both men's names by reading the dancing men code. While waiting for the result of this message, Holmes takes the opportunity to explain to Watson and Inspector Martin how he cracked the code of the dancing men, and the messages are revealed. The last one, which caused Holmes and Watson to rush to Norfolk, read “ELSIE PREPARE TO MEET THY GOD”.

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The Adventure of Mazarin Stone

The Adventure of Mazarin Stone

 "Brain can work better when our stomach is empty. Watson, the most interesting part of my body is my brain, the other part are only a complements" - Sherlock Holmes to Dr. Watson

"The Adventure of the Mazarin Stone" 1921 is one of 12 Sherlock Holmes short stories (56 total) by Arthur Conan Doyle in The Case-Book of Sherlock Holmes first published Strand Magazine October 1921 - April 1927.

Watson arrives at 221B Baker Street to find Holmes in bed at seven in the evening while Billy the page explains that Holmes has been hot on the trail of a missing jewel, a Crown diamond no less, worth about £100,000. He has been disguised as a job less work man, and even as an old woman while pursuing the thief across London. He has also not been eating, believing that hunger sharpens his wits. The Prime Minister and the Home Secretary have been to see Holmes, along with Lord Cantlemere, who is apparently not a great fan of Sherlock Holmes and no believer in his deductive powers. He is opposed to engaging Holmes to recover the precious gem.

Also in the room is a wax dummy, a remarkable effigy of Sherlock Holmes, seated in a chair near the window. Holmes soon emerges from his bedroom and explains that the dummy is a decoy designed to fool a would-be gunman, much as was done in "The Adventure of the Empty House", to which Watson alludes. Holmes, it would seem, is fully expecting an attempt on his life that very evening, and he even has Watson write down the murderer's name and address, just in case the attempt is successful: the murderer — and also the jewel thief — is Count Negretto Sylvius of 136 Moorside Gardens, NW.

Moments later, Billy comes in with none other than Count Negretto Sylvius's card. He has arrived. Holmes has hardly expected this. The count has also brought his dimwitted henchman with him, Sam Merton, a boxer, who can be seen out the window.

Holmes gives Watson a written message, tells him to give it to Youghal of the CID, and ushers him out the back way over his objections at Holmes's exposing himself to such danger. Holmes tells Watson to come back with the police. Meanwhile he will try to find out from the count the one piece of information that has thus far eluded him: the stone's whereabouts.

Holmes is not in the room when Sylvius enter. The count sees the effigy and, mistaking it for Holmes, is about to stave its head in with his cane just as Holmes, having entered the room, speaks. The count's intentions are clear enough, and they're just as Holmes suspected.

Sylvius demands to know why Holmes's agents have been following him. Holmes explains first that it was he himself, in disguise, who had been his shadow; and like his crime fighting activities to the Count's lion-hunting in Algeria — the danger is exhilarating, and it rids the country of a pest.

Holmes then proceeds to make his own purpose plain and tells the count that he wants to know where the Mazarin Stone is. Holmes even boasts that the count will tell him. At first, the count denies that he even knows, but Holmes tricks him into revealing that he does. He also outlines the evidence which he has amassed against the count for this theft, and other crimes.

Both men are armed. The count is sitting on his revolver, and Holmes fingers one is in his dressing-gown pocket.

Holmes skillfully gets Sylvius to agree to call Sam Merton up to the room. Until now Merton has been keeping watch outside. Holmes tells the two thugs to consider their positions: they can go to prison for 20 years if Holmes does not find the Mazarin Stone, or else they can reveal its hiding place and go free. Meanwhile, Holmes withdraws once more to his bedroom with his violin and soon the strains of the Barcarolle from the Tales of Hoffmann emanate from Holmes's room.

Left to themselves, the thieves discuss Holmes's offer, and are disturbed only by a soft noise apparently coming from somewhere out in the street. During the course of their discussion as to what their next move ought to be, Sylvius reveals to his confederate that he is carrying the Mazarin Stone in a secret pocket. He takes it out to show him. Bringing it over near the window, where the dummy is, to get a better look at it, Sylvius and Merton are astonished when the waxen figure turns round, snatches the diamond, and points a revolver at them. It is Holmes. He has reached the alcove in the bow window through a second door which leads behind the curtain. Merton can't understand why he can still hear the violin playing. Holmes explains that it's a Gramophone. It's also clear now that the soft noise was made when Holmes removed the dummy.

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A Study in Scarlet

A Study in Scarlet

 "In a colorless threads of destiny, there is the scarlet thread called murder. Our duty is to unravel and isolate that thread down the sunlight without missing an inch" - Sherlock Holmes

A Study in Scarlet is a detective mystery novel written by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, introducing his new character of Sherlock Holmes, who later became one of the most famous literary detective characters. He wrote the story in 1886, and it's published the next year.

The story, and its main character, attracted little public interest when it first appeared. Only 11 complete copies of Beeton's Christmas Annual 1887 are known to exist now and they have considerable value. Although Conan Doyle wrote 56 short stories featuring Holmes, A Study in Scarlet is one of only four full-length novels in the original canon. The novel was followed by The Sign of the Four, published in 1890. A Study in Scarlet was the first work of fiction to incorporate the magnifying glass as an investigative tool.

Conan Doyle wrote the novel at the age of 27 in less than three weeks. As a general practice doctor in South Sea, Portsmouth, he had already published short stories in several magazines of the day, such as the periodical London Society. The story was originally titled A Tangled Skein, and was eventually published by Ward Lock & Co. in Beeton's Christmas Annual 1887, after many rejections. The author received £25 in return for the full rights (although Conan Doyle had pressed for a royalty instead). It was illustrated by D. H. Friston. The novel was first published as a book on July 1888 by Ward, Lock & Co., and featured drawings by the author's father, Charles Doyle. A second edition appeared the following year and was illustrated by George Hutchinson; a year later in 1890, J. B. Lippincott & Co. released the first American version. Numerous further editions, translations and dramatisations have appeared since.

As the first Sherlock Holmes story published, A Study in Scarlet was among the first to be adapted to the screen. In 1914, Conan Doyle authorised a silent film be produced by G. B. Samuelson. Holmes was played by James Bragington, an accountant who had never before (and never after) worked as an actor. He was hired for his resemblance to Holmes as presented in the sketches originally published with the story. As early silent films were made with film which itself was made with poor materials and film archiving was rare, this is now a lost film. The success of this film allowed for a second version to be produced that same year by Francis Ford, which has also been lost.

The 1933 film entitled A Study in Scarlet, starring Reginald Owen as Sherlock Holmes and Anna May Wong as Mrs. Pyke, bears no plot relation to the novel, the producers having only purchased rights to the title, not the story. (So limited were the purchased rights, that the famous Baker Street address is "221A" in the film rather than the renowned "221B.") Aside from Holmes, Watson, Mrs. Hudson, and Inspector Lestrade, the only connections to the Holmes canon are a few lifts of character names (Jabez Wilson, etc.). The plot contains an element of striking resemblance to one used several years later in Agatha Christie's novel And Then There Were None, that of murder victims being counted off by lines from the same nursery rhyme (though the Holmes film takes the precaution of using the phrase "ten little black boys").

The book has rarely been adapted in full, notable instances being: an episode broadcast on 23 September 1968 in the second season of the BBC television series Sherlock Holmes, with Peter Cushing in the lead role and Nigel Stock as Dr. Watson, which put more detail into the story, including the actor who claims the ring; the first episode of the 1979 Soviet TV adaptation, Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson (combines the story with The Adventure of the Speckled Band. The second episode adapts the rest of the novel); an 1983 animated version produced by Burbank Films Australia, with Peter O'Toole voicing Holmes; Sherlock Holmes and a Study in Scarlet the first episode of the BBC's complete Sherlock Holmes on Radio 4, starring Clive Merrison as Holmes and Michael Williams as Watson; and a 2007 episode of the American radio series The Classic Adventures of Sherlock Holmes.

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