Tuesdays in May will see us recommence charting the complete short stories of Mr. Sherlock Holmes as written by his creator Sir Arthur Conan Doyle.
Continue reading#1057: Little Fictions – ‘The Five Orange Pips’ (1891) by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
Arthur Conan Doyle
#1044: To Foe of Theirs I’m Deadly Foe… – My Ten Favourite Literary Detectives
Perhaps April Fool’s Day isn’t the best scheduling of this post, but the recent experience of dragging my way through Helen Vardon’s Confession (1922) by R. Austin Freeman got me thinking about the literary detectives I’d follow to hell and back, and I figured that it might be worth expanding upon.
Continue reading#1030: Little Fictions – ‘The Boscombe Valley Mystery’ (1891) by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
#1027: Little Fictions – ‘The Red-Headed League’ (1891) by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
#1021: Little Fictions – ‘A Scandal in Bohemia’ (1891) by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
Today begins a long-range project in which I work through the 56 canonical short stories featuring Mr. Sherlock Holmes written by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle…some of which I haven’t read in over 20 years. I’m fascinated by Holmes, especially when he is as his creator made him, and, while I doubt I’ll have anything new to say, I intend to enjoy rereading him from first to last.
Continue reading#1014: “I had no idea that such individuals did exist outside of stories.” – A Study in Scarlet (1887) by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
Having recently enshrined Hercule Poirot as the official World’s Favourite Golden Age Sleuth, let’s return to the probable holder of the title of World’s Favourite Detective and the very first case to feature Mr. Sherlock Holmes.
Continue reading#971: (Spooky) Little Fictions – Ghosts from the Library [ss] (2022) ed. Tony Medawar
With the annual Bodies from the Library collections, which have brought long out-of-print stories of crime and detection back to public awareness, proving rightly popular, editor Tony Medawar turns his attention to another facet of genre fiction with the Ghosts from the Library (2022) collection, in which authors (mostly) better known for their stories of crime and detection have a go at generating some supernatural chills instead.
Continue reading#907: “Whimsical and bizarre conceits of this kind are common enough in the annals of crime…” – The Sign of Four, a.k.a. The Sign of the Four (1890) by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
My memory of The Sign of Four (1890), the second story to feature Sherlock Holmes from the pen of Arthur Conan Doyle, was that it offered little of interest or consequence, and stood rather as a footnote in the canon than a core text. And, rereading it for this post, I’ve come to realise that this impression is both quite right and very wrong indeed.
Continue reading#837: “Many of the family have been unhappy in their deaths, which have been sudden, bloody, and mysterious…” – The Hound of the Baskervilles (1902) by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
#811: Reflections on Detection – The Knox Decalogue 9: The Watson
The end of the Knox Decalogue is in sight! This week it’s Watsons, next week it’s Twins, and then — oh no! — there’s a final Tuesday in the month that I have to fill with something. A flashy dance routine, perhaps?
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The Invisible Event 