Personal thoughts, reactions, favorites, criticisms to various works from the Sherlock Holmes canon

Thursday 5/1/25

The Hound of the Baskervilles is the best of the four novels and a candidate for the best work in the Holmes canon. It's less reliant on a ponderous backstory than the other three of Conan Doyle's Holmes novels, is well paced, melds mystery and the supernatural skillfully, loses Holmes for a stretch and lets Watson shine without the detective being missed, and then it's all the more exciting and revitalizing when Holmes returns.

The escaped convict is a useful device--a red herring without being an outright red herring--and the atmosphere is the finest of any Holmes work. Perhaps most importantly, there is the moors and the setting, which allows for some of the finest nature writing we have. You could read Hound with a primarily ecological interest and be delighted.

I'll read and listen to radio versions of "The Empty House," but I also avoid it, because it's just so sad at the end. Doesn't matter if you know that Holmes isn't really dead and he's coming back.

"A Case of Mistaken Identity" is my least favorite of the stories. It's so far-fetched and gross and it strains credulity too much.

Most of the stories are completely implausible. They feature forced plot aspects. These are big flaws. If you wanted to argue why these works aren't really art, this could be where you start (and stop, because you wouldn't need to go any further).

The value is in the atmospherics, the leitmotifs that pass from story to story, and, more than anything else, the friendship of the two principals. If the Holmes canon is a kind of art, it's because of Doyle's treatment of that relationship.

Similar stories that are not rated very highly and which I like quite a lot: "The Engineer's Thumb" and "The Stockbroker's Clerk." Holmes does little in the former--save to deduce that the carriage hadn't traveled as far as it seems--and basically nothing in the latter save tag along with Watson and take a seventy minute trip on a train.

An uncomfortable truth, perhaps, but not for me: Holmes isn't brilliant. He's kind of like Conan Doyle. A non-genius can't write a genius. Holmes' skill, as such, is more a matter of the incompetent of the people he works with, if you will. The inspectors of Scotland Yard. And the general stupidity of man, which was a lot less stupid back then. If you are not a moron and are logical, that is often enough for you to stand out.

Another story that fills me with sadness: "The Five Orange Pips." John Openshaw is so immediately likable when he comes to 221B on that storm-lashed night. He settles in with Holmes and Watson in the cozy nook with the fire going and shares his story on what turns out to be the last night of his life. Holmes was the incompetent party in this one. That they just let the guy leave on his own is either sheer stupidity, gross negligence, or both.

Two other similar stories: "The Resident Patient" and "The Norwich Builder."

"The Speckled Band" is often anthologized as a foundational example of a locked room mystery, but again, the thing is so damn improbable. Doyle forced plots to fit to other ideas he had. Outcomes he wanted. Ideally, you realize those ideas and get those outcomes through plots that unfold naturally. Try explaining the plot of "The Speckled Band" out loud to someone. It sounds absurd. You'll hear how silly what you're saying is. But the story is still enjoyable. It's creepy, sinister, and had a touch of The Hound of the Baskervilles with Holmes and Watson looking out for that lighted signal in the night.

"The Man with the Twisted Lip" is one of the best of the fifty-six stories and no crime is committed. Again, no master detective work is done. Holmes throws a bucket of water on a guy in a cell. The mystery quotient is high, though. There's tension. The plot is mostly plausible.

A totally, almost comically implausible story that is one of my very favorites: "The Red-Headed League." Love the quirkiness, the humor. The Jeremy Brett series takes the liberty of making the league part of a larger scheme authored by Moriarty and I like that add-on, too. The bit about tapping the pavement with his stick has always appealed to me in every incarnation.

Another favorite: "The Musgrave Ritual." A sort of locked room mystery with outdoor parts. Lots of bold plot points, but more or less believable. This is Holmes pre-Watson, but again the Jeremy Brett series made a change and set the story in the Holmes-Watson roommate years. Features this jump cut and then a shot of Holmes standing at the prow of a skiff that is iconic within the context of the series. Sums up the Holmes character as interpreted by Jeremy Brett very well.

A never discussed aspect of "The Final Problem," which does make me happy: The two friends still go sightseeing at the end. Holmes may be dead soon, but they carry on. They're tourists not missing the spots. They make sure to enjoy each other's company.

When you think about it, it's kind of messed up that Holmes messes with Watson at the beginning of "The Empty House."

The office intrigue of "The Naval Treaty" has a note of the supernatural to it, though we don't think the supernatural is at play.

One of the most successful and well-plotted of the short stories: "Silver Blaze." Holmes out in the open air is usually a good thing. There's a most unlikely murderer. A robust affair to fill the reader's lungs with good, clean air.

Perhaps my favorite of the stories: "The Blue Carbuncle." It's Holmes and Watson and Christmas, so I'm vulnerable to this one. Has another ridiculous implausibility: Of all the people in London, the bird with the purloined jewel in it ends up with Holmes at 221B? Come on! But, you're having such a nice time in the story that you don't really care if you even notice enough to object at all.

That was quite a set-up they had over their at 221B with Mrs. Hudson.

Big canonical plot hole: Mycroft Holmes preserves his brother's rooms as they were after his death, but Watson doesn't know about this? We have to assume Watson didn't, or else he would have known something was up. He just stopped knowing Mrs. Hudson? Never went over there again to visit her?

Much has been made about Holmes' depression, but Watson is depressed as well and is quite open about the state he was in after returning from Afghanistan. Then, too, after the death of his first wife. Holmes saves him. He saves Holmes. They are true friends.

There is a lucid sadness to both "The Lion's Mane" and "His Last Bow." The former is from a time of life's winding down. The latter is about a man leaving the stage of life and walking into the wings of death, but still trying to do some good. We think of Holmes as indestructible, eternal. But he, too, is a bit player in this life. His role and import is not what it once was. He sees the coming future, and despairs for those who will be lost after he himself is perhaps already gone.