Showing results by narrator "Marc Smythe" in All Categories

Helen Stoner worries her stepfather may be trying to kill her after he contrives to move her to the bedroom where her sister had died two years earlier, shortly before her wedding. Stoner is herself now engaged, and Holmes learns that her stepfather's annuity (from the estate of his wife - stoner's mother) would be greatly reduced if either sister married.

"The Red-Headed League" was the second of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's 56 Sherlock Holmes short stories to be published in The Strand magazine. Doyle ranked "The Red-Headed League" second in his list of his 12 favorite Holmes stories. It was first published in August of 1891 and was later the first of the stories collected in The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes in 1892.

An engineer, Victor Hatherly, attends Dr. Watson's Surgery after his thumb is chopped off, and recounts his tale to Watson and Holmes. Hatherly had been hired for 50 guineas to repair a machine he was told compressed Fuller's earth into bricks. Hatherly was told to keep the job confidential, and was transported to the job in a carriage with frosted glass, to keep the location secret. He was shown the press, but on closer inspection discovered a "rust of metallic deposit" on the press, and he suspected it was not being used for compressing earth.

Violet Hunter consults Holmes after being offered a governess job subject to a number of unusual conditions, including cutting her hair short. The wage is extremely high, and she decides to accept the job, though Holmes tells her to contact him if she needs to. After a number of strange occurrences, including the discovery of a sealed-off wing of the house, she does so.

John Openshaw tells Holmes about two strange deaths in his family. In 1883, his uncle died two months after receiving a letter from India, inscribed "KKK", with five orange pips enclosed. In 1885, Openshaw's father received a similar letter and died three days afterward. Openshaw recently received a similar letter and asks for advice. Holmes tells Openshaw to do as the letter asks and leave a diary page, which Holmes deduces is connected to the Ku Klux Klan, on the garden sundial.

Lord Robert St. Simon's new American bride, Hatty Doran, has disappeared almost immediately after the wedding. The servants had prevented an old love interest of his from forcing her way into the wedding breakfast, and Hatty had been seen in whispered conversation with her maid. Inspector Lestrade arrives with the news that Hatty's wedding dress and ring have been found floating in the Serpentine.

A banker asks Holmes to investigate after a Beryl coronet entrusted to him is damaged at his home. Awakened by noise, he finds his son, Arthur, holding the damaged coronet. Arthur refuses to speak, neither admitting guilt nor explaining himself.

Neville St. Clair, a respectable businessman, has disappeared, and his wife claims she saw him at the upper window of an opium den. When she entered the room, she found only a beggar. St. Clair's clothes are later found in the room, and his coat, laden with coins, in the River Thames outside the window. The beggar is arrested for murder, but a few days later St. Clair's wife receives a letter from her husband.

The Boscombe Valley Mystery is the fourth of the 12 stories in The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes. It was first published in the Strand Magazine in 1891. Holmes is summoned to a community in Herefordshire where a local landowner has been murdered outdoors. The deceased's estranged son is strongly implicated. Holmes quickly determines that a mysterious third man may be responsible for the crime, unraveling a thread involving a secret criminal past, thwarted love, and blackmail.

A "Blue Carbuncle" is stolen from a hotel suite, and a former felon is soon arrested. However, an acquaintance of Holmes discovers the carbuncle in the throat of a Christmas goose. Holmes traces the owner of the goose, but soon determines that he was not the thief by offering him a replacement goose. The detective continues his search, first to an inn and then to a dealer in Covent Garden. The dealer refuses to provide Holmes with information about the source of the goose, but Holmes observes another man trying to find the same information, and confronts him.

"A Case of Identity" is one of the 56 short stories written by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle and is the third story in The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes. The story revolves around the case of Miss Mary Sutherland, a woman with a substantial income from the interest on a fund set up for her. She is engaged to a quiet Londoner who has recently disappeared. Holmes' detective powers are barely challenged, as this turns out to be quite an elementary case for hum, much as it puzzles Watson.

"A Scandal in Bohemia" was the first of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's 56 Sherlock Holmes short stories to be published in The Strand magazine. Doyle ranked "A Scandal in Bohemia" fifth in his list of 12 favorite Holmes stories. It was first published on June 25, 1891, and was later the first of the stories collected in The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes in 1892.