This week’s lesson features the famous Sherlock Holmes—the detective’s detective.

Holmes was everything an investigator should be: brilliant, calculating, determined, and creative in his investigation techniques.

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It’s also a classic example of the “locked room” formula that Doyle made famous (no way in, no way out). This was an early story, published in 1892 in the Strand Magazine.

The story also features Sidney Paget illustrations.

Once unraveled, we see how this story touches on a number of themes: family honor, justice restored, and fear explained, to name a few. This was one of the first mystery stories to focus on a madman—who has met his match in Sherlock Holmes. This is one of the darker stories in the Sherlock Holmes repertoire, where victims are killed via strange methods.

This story has been widely adapted for radio, film, television, and even a video game.

Doyle wrote and produced one theatrical version starring Lyn Harding and H.A. Sainstbury (Adventure 2022).

Before we move into the particulars of the story, read on to learn about our great detective.

According the Arthur Conan Doyle Encyclopedia, Arthur Conan Doyle created the Sherlock Holmes character in 1887. The famous “consulting detective” resided at 11b Baker Street in London.

Holmes was in his sixties in the later mysteries (1914 or so). He came from a family of country squires, and had one older brother. Holmes was tall (6 feet) and thin with a “thin hawk-like nose” and black hair. He dressed formally, usually in a tweed suit. He smoked a pipe and occasionally cigars.

To solve his cases, he often stepped into an actor’s role and took on various disguises.

This helped him engage with the criminal mind, as well as create a particular situation and see how characters behaved.

As we’ll see, Dr. Watson is his main friend and confidant.

One might wonder how in the world Sir Arthur Conan Doyle came up with such a dastardly plot, featuring such a bizarre murder weapon. One Sherlock Holmes scholar (Richard Lancelyn Green) suggests the inspiration came from the article, "Called on by a Boa Constrictor. A West African Adventure" in Cassell's Saturday Journal, published in February 1891. In the article, a captain tells how he was dispatched to a remote camp in [West Africa] to stay in a tumbledown cabin that belonged to a Portuguese trader. On the first night in the cabin, he is awoken by a creaking sound, and sees a "queer-looking thing hanging down through the ventilator above it" (Adventure, 2022).

It turns out to be the largest [Boa constrictor] the captain has seen (more likely a python

because there are no boas in Africa). He is paralyzed with fear as the serpent enters the

room. The captain sees an old bell hanging from a beam above one of the windows, and he is able to pull the cord, ring the bell, and get help (Adventure, 2022).

This was apparently the beginning of story for Doyle, who must have then conducted research on poisonous snakes, and on the swamp adder (“the deadliest snake in India!”). True qualities of the swamp adder are that it is from India, it has a quick-acting poison, it can climb walls, and of course, it bears brownish spots on a yellow band around its body (The Speckled Band, 2022).

While I won’t provide a detailed plot summary of “The Speckled Band,” allow me to point out a few interesting observations.

Like many Holmes stories, this one begins with Mr. Watson sitting in on a new client meeting as Sherlock interviews a young woman, Helen Stoner. We need Mr. Watson to explain what is happening! While Watson is no dummy himself (he is a doctor, after all), he is always a cognitive step or two behind his friend. The reader benefits as Mr. Watson tries to figure out the mystery (as we do), and at the same time he analyzes Holmes’ analysis.

This story also has a common theme of an unhappy family (troubled marriage, dark past, mysterious relatives, or in this case an evil stepfather). Several of Doyle’s stories (such as “The Crooked Man”) involve military service in India or some other British colony. The madman in this story is Dr. Grimesby Roylott, a man with a violent past who is now threatening is stepdaughter Helen.

Another common theme we see in Sherlock Holmes stories (and in many mysteries) is the mysterious death syndrome—something that occurred in the past but doesn’t set right. Something is fishy, and Holmes has a sensitive nose for such fishiness.

The mysterious death in question is Helen’s twin sister, who died just before she would be married. Before the sister’s death, she reported a number of strange phenomenon, and she left a famous “dying clue” in her final words: “The speckled band!” Now Helen is hearing strange sounds in her bedroom at night, and the mystery of her sister’s death comes back to haunt her.

A final common plot twist we see in Holmes’ stories is how Sherlock usually comes to his brilliant conclusions by visiting the scene of the crime himself (with Watson in tow). In this case he invites himself to the probably scene of the crime and Holmes and Watson spend the night in Helen’s room (of course she spends the night at the nearby inn—otherwise this would add a more risqué element to the mystery!).

Spoiler alert: In the conclusion Holmes performs some incredible snake handling, unlike Dr. Roylott, who ends up paying for his snakey crime with his own life.

Why did he do it?

We’ll talk a lot about motivation in this class. What drives someone to commit a crime? I suppose greed is the simple answer in “The Adventure of the Speckled Band.” But like all strong stories, there are several layers to sort through, and many stylistic details to appreciate.

Whether this is your first Sherlock Holmes story, or you have read stories over and over, this is a good one to ponder. Following his standard approach, Conan Doyle lays out the plot through dialogue between Holmes and Watson. Watson, as usual, lags behind his friend’s deductive line of reasoning (as we readers do) and asks questions to fill in the blanks.

We gradually gain insight about our characters and their actions (this often requires a visit to the scene of the crime). Sir Conan Doyle usually wraps up the case with a twist and a lesson learned.

Perhaps now you can better see the influence of this story’s style (and even content) on future generations of mystery writers.

Adventure of the Speckled Band. (2022). Retrieved from

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Adventure_of_the_Speckled_Band

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Summary-of-the-Adventure-of-the-Speckled-Band

Sherlock Holmes (2022). Retrieved from

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Adventure_of_the_Speckled_Band

Sherlock Holmes (2021). Retrieved from https://www.britannica.com/topic/Sherlock-

Holmes

Sherlock Holmes (2020). Retrieved from https://www.arthur-conan-

doyle.com/index.php/Sherlock_Holmes

The Sherlock Holmes Encyclopedia. (2022). Retrieved from From The Sherlock Holmes

Encyclopedia

Wilson, P. (2020). Arthur Conan Doyle. Retrieved from

https://www.britannica.com/biography/Arthur-Conan-Doyle