A series of posts, containing full spoilers, as I make my way once more through the complete canon, picking out points of interest and reflecting on my personal experience of the stories.
Silver Blaze
- “Is there any point to which you would wish to draw my attention.” (said Inspector Gregory.” “To the curious incident of the dog in the night-time.” (said Holmes).” “The dog did nothing in the night-time.” “That was the curious incident,” remarked Sherlock Holmes. One of the most famous lines in the canon, which for some unknown reason I used to believe came from the Reigate Squires. The absence of something unusual, or the continuation of normality amidst strange events, can itself be a clue.
- Features the secondmost famous animal murderer in crime fiction.
The Yellow Face
- The ending is one of the most moving in the canon and probably quite unexpected for the time.
- “Norbury” is to Holmes what “Chocolate box” is to Poirot.
The Stockbroker’s Clerk
- Another example where if something seems too good to be true, in this case a stranger offering to increase your salary from £200 per annum to £500, then it almost certainly is.
- Also, using a bet as a pretext to get someone to act in a particular way is quite an effective stratagem. Although if you have actually made a bet, your mark may not always be so obliging: an anecdote that I remember from GCSE history was that a man sitting next to the famously taciturn President Calvin Coolidge told him that he’d bet a friend he could make him say more than two words during the evening to which Coolidge said “You lose” and turned to his other neighbour.
Previous posts in this series:
#3 -A Scandal in Bohemia, The Red-Headed League, and A Case of Identity
#4 – The Boscombe Valley Mystery. The Five Orange Pips, and The Man with the Twisted Lip
#5 – The Blue Carbuncle, The Speckled Band, and The Engineer’s Thumb
#6 – The Noble Bachelor, The Beryl Coronet, and The Copper Beeches