The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes (Doyle)
Short summary
London, late 19th century. Alexander Holder, a prominent banker, arrived at Baker Street distressed and sought help from Sherlock Holmes. Holder explained that he had secured a valuable beryl coronet as collateral for a loan to a nobleman. Worried about its safety at the bank, he brought the coronet home, alerting only his niece Mary and his irresponsible son Arthur. During the night, Holder heard noises and discovered Arthur holding the damaged coronet with three beryls missing. Believing Arthur guilty but unable to find the gems, Holder turned desperately to Holmes.
Holmes, accompanied by his friend Dr. Watson, carefully investigated Holder's house, scrutinizing minute clues overlooked by others. He discovered inconsistencies and deduced that Arthur struggled with an unseen intruder who fled into the night. Holmes logically narrowed down the possible suspects, explaining to Holder:
It is an old maxim of mine that when you have excluded the impossible, whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth. Now, I knew that it was not you who had brought it down, so there only remained your niece and the maids.
Further investigation revealed Holder's niece Mary was the real culprit, manipulated by Sir George Burnwell, a dishonest man with whom she was secretly involved. Arthur had actually tried to rescue the coronet from Burnwell, thus protecting his father's honor. Although betrayed by Mary, Holder learned the truth, reconciled with his son, and gratefully recovered the missing gems through Holmes's decisive actions. Mary vanished with Burnwell, leaving Holder saddened but relieved by Arthur's innocence.
Detailed summary by stories
A Scandal in Bohemia
For Sherlock Holmes, Irene Adler was always "the woman" - the only woman who ever outwitted him. Dr. Watson, recently married, visited his old friend at Baker Street one evening in March 1888. Holmes quickly deduced details about Watson's recent activities through his powers of observation.
A masked visitor arrived, whom Holmes identified as the King of Bohemia despite his disguise. The King sought Holmes's help regarding a compromising photograph of himself with Irene Adler, which threatened his upcoming marriage to a Scandinavian princess. Holmes devised a plan to locate the photograph.
To Sherlock Holmes she is always the woman. I have seldom heard him mention her under any other name. In his eyes she eclipses and predominates the whole of her sex. It was not that he felt any emotion akin to love for Irene Adler.
The next day, Holmes discovered that Adler had married Godfrey Norton. He created a diversion at her residence by staging a fire alarm, which revealed the photograph's hiding place. However, Adler recognized Holmes's deception and fled with her new husband, leaving behind a letter explaining that she would only use the photograph for self-protection. Holmes kept her photograph as a reminder of being outwitted by a woman's intellect.
The Redheaded League
Jabez Wilson, a pawnbroker with fiery red hair, consulted Holmes about a strange experience. He had been hired by the mysterious "Redheaded League" to copy the Encyclopedia Britannica for four pounds a week. After eight weeks, he arrived at the office to find it closed and the League dissolved without explanation.
Holmes became interested in Wilson's assistant, Vincent Spaulding, who had suggested the position and worked for half wages. After visiting Wilson's shop, Holmes deduced that Spaulding was actually John Clay, a notorious criminal. The Redheaded League was merely a ruse to keep Wilson away from his shop while Clay tunneled into the adjacent bank vault.
That night, Holmes, Watson, and police officers waited in the bank's cellar. They captured Clay and his accomplice as they emerged from the tunnel. Holmes explained to Watson that he had deduced the plot from several clues, including the worn knees of Spaulding's trousers from his tunneling work.
A Case of Identity
Mary Sutherland, a short-sighted typist with an independent income, sought Holmes's help to find her missing fiancé, Hosmer Angel. She had met Angel at a gasfitters' ball and corresponded with him while her stepfather was away on business. Angel had proposed marriage but disappeared on their wedding day.
My dear fellow, life is infinitely stranger than anything which the mind of man could invent. We would not dare to conceive the things which are really mere commonplaces of existence.
Holmes examined the typewritten letters from Angel and quickly solved the case. He revealed that Hosmer Angel was actually Mary's stepfather in disguise. The stepfather had created this deception to prevent Mary from marrying and taking her income elsewhere. Holmes chose not to reveal the cruel truth to Mary, believing it would only cause her more pain.
The Boscombe Valley Mystery
Holmes and Watson traveled to Boscombe Valley to investigate the murder of Charles McCarthy. His son, James, was the prime suspect, having been seen following his father to Boscombe Pool and arguing with him shortly before the murder. James was found with blood on his clothes near his father's body, which had been beaten with a blunt instrument.
Circumstantial evidence is a very tricky thing. It may seem to point very straight to one thing, but if you shift your own point of view a little, you may find it pointing in an equally uncompromising manner to something entirely different.
Despite the damning evidence, Alice Turner, daughter of John Turner (McCarthy's neighbor and landlord), believed in James's innocence. Holmes discovered that James was secretly married to a barmaid in Bristol and had quarreled with his father about Alice, not about murder.
After examining the crime scene, Holmes confronted John Turner, who confessed to the murder. Turner and McCarthy had known each other in Australia, where Turner (then known as Black Jack of Ballarat) had been a highway robber. McCarthy had been blackmailing Turner and demanding that James marry Alice. Holmes agreed to keep Turner's confession secret unless needed to save James. James was acquitted, and Turner died seven months later.
The Five Orange Pips
John Openshaw consulted Holmes about a family mystery. His uncle, Elias Openshaw, had returned to England from Florida with a mysterious brass box marked "K.K.K." In 1883, Elias received a letter containing five orange pips and the letters "K.K.K.," which terrified him. He burned papers from the box and was later found dead in a pool.
John's father inherited the estate and, two years later, also received orange pips with the same initials. He died three days later in what was ruled an accident. Now John had received the same ominous package with instructions to put "the papers" on the sundial.
Holmes identified the K.K.K. as the Ku Klux Klan and deduced that Elias had fled America with incriminating papers. He advised John on protective measures, but before Holmes could intervene further, John was found dead near Waterloo Bridge. Holmes traced the murders to Captain James Calhoun of the ship Lone Star, but the vessel was lost at sea during a storm, taking the murderers beyond human justice.
The Man with the Twisted Lip
Dr. Watson was asked by Kate Whitney to find her husband, Isa, an opium addict. At an East End opium den, Watson not only found Isa but also encountered Holmes in disguise. Holmes was investigating the disappearance of Neville St. Clair, a respectable businessman who had been seen at the den's window by his wife before vanishing.
St. Clair's clothes were found in a room above the den, along with bloodstains on the windowsill. A disfigured beggar named Hugh Boone was arrested on suspicion of murder. Mrs. St. Clair later received a letter from her husband confirming he was alive.
It is my belief, Watson, founded upon my experience, that the lowest and vilest alleys in London do not present a more dreadful record of sin than does the smiling and beautiful countryside.
Holmes solved the case by washing the face of Hugh Boone, revealing him to be Neville St. Clair in disguise. St. Clair confessed that he had been a newspaper reporter who once wrote an article about begging. Finding that begging was surprisingly lucrative, he had created the Hugh Boone persona to earn money while maintaining his respectable life. Holmes agreed to keep the secret as long as St. Clair abandoned his begging career.
The Adventure of the Blue Carbuncle
During the Christmas season, Peterson, a commissionaire, brought Holmes a battered hat and a Christmas goose that had been dropped by a man during a street scuffle. Holmes examined the hat and deduced numerous details about its owner, Henry Baker. Later, Peterson returned with a valuable blue carbuncle found inside the goose - the same jewel recently stolen from the Countess of Morcar.
Holmes placed an advertisement to find Baker, who appeared that evening to claim his possessions. Baker showed no knowledge of the jewel and was clearly innocent. Holmes and Watson then traced the goose's origins through a dealer named Breckinridge to a seller named Mrs. Oakshott.
At Breckinridge's stall, they encountered James Ryder, head attendant at the hotel where the theft occurred. Holmes confronted Ryder, who confessed to stealing the jewel and hiding it in a goose, which was accidentally mixed up with others. Holmes, believing Ryder was acting out of fear rather than criminal nature, allowed him to go free, hoping to save him from becoming a hardened criminal.
The Adventure of the Speckled Band
Helen Stoner sought Holmes's help regarding her fear of impending death. She lived with her violent stepfather, Dr. Grimesby Roylott, in his ancestral home. Two years earlier, her twin sister Julia had died mysteriously after mentioning hearing a strange whistle at night. Before dying, Julia uttered the cryptic words, "The speckled band!"
Now engaged to be married, Helen had been moved to her sister's former bedroom due to house repairs. She had recently heard the same whistle that preceded her sister's death. After Helen left, Dr. Roylott burst into Holmes's rooms, threatening him and bending a poker to demonstrate his strength.
When a woman thinks that her house is on fire, her instinct is at once to rush to the thing which she values most. It is a perfectly overpowering impulse, and I have more than once taken advantage of it.
Holmes and Watson visited Stoke Moran, examining the bedrooms and noting a dummy bell-rope and a ventilator connecting to Roylott's room. That night, they kept watch in Helen's room. When they heard a whistle, Holmes attacked the bell-rope with his cane. A venomous swamp adder, the "speckled band," retreated through the ventilator and bit Dr. Roylott, who had trained it to kill his stepdaughters to prevent them from marrying and claiming their inheritance.
The Adventure of the Engineer's Thumb
Dr. Watson treated Victor Hatherley, a hydraulic engineer whose thumb had been severed in a violent attack. Hatherley recounted being hired by Colonel Lysander Stark for a secretive, well-paid job examining a hydraulic press supposedly used for compressing fuller's-earth.
Taken to a remote country house, Hatherley discovered the press was actually being used for counterfeiting coins. When he confronted Stark, he was trapped in the press room. A woman in the house helped him escape through a window, but as he fled, Stark attacked him with a cleaver, severing his thumb.
Holmes, Watson, Hatherley, and Inspector Bradstreet traveled to the location, only to find the house ablaze. The criminals had fled, but evidence of their counterfeiting operation remained. Holmes deduced that Hatherley's oil lamp had likely caused the fire. The case connected to the earlier disappearance of another engineer, Jeremiah Hayling, who had presumably been killed after a similar consultation.
The Adventure of the Noble Bachelor
Lord Robert St. Simon consulted Holmes about the disappearance of his American bride, Hatty Doran, who vanished during their wedding breakfast. The police suspected Flora Millar, a former lover of St. Simon, might be involved. St. Simon described how Hatty had seemed distracted during the ceremony, especially after dropping her bouquet and having it returned by a stranger.
Inspector Lestrade believed Flora had murdered Hatty, especially after finding a note signed "F.H.M." in Hatty's abandoned wedding dress. Holmes, however, focused on a hotel bill found with the note and quickly solved the case.
And that was how a great scandal threatened to affect the kingdom of Bohemia, and how the best plans of Mr. Sherlock Holmes were beaten by a woman's wit. He used to make merry over the cleverness of women, but I have not heard him do it of late.
Holmes invited Lord St. Simon to Baker Street, where he introduced him to Francis Hay Moulton and his wife - the missing Hatty. She explained that she had been previously married to Moulton in America but believed him dead. When she saw him at her wedding to St. Simon, she left with him. St. Simon departed coldly, refusing to forgive the deception, while Holmes explained to Watson how he had traced the couple through the hotel bill.
The Adventure of the Beryl Coronet
Alexander Holder, a banker, consulted Holmes about a damaged beryl coronet. Holder had accepted the coronet as security for a loan and taken it home for safekeeping. During the night, he caught his son Arthur holding the coronet with a piece broken off. Arthur refused to explain, leading to his arrest.
The ideal reasoner would, when he had once been shown a single fact in all its bearings, deduce from it not only all the chain of events which led up to it but also all the results which would follow from it.
Holmes investigated Holder's household, which included his niece Mary, whom he had raised, and several servants. The next morning, Holder discovered that Mary had fled, leaving a note expressing her responsibility for the trouble.
Holmes revealed that Mary had been in league with Sir George Burnwell, a disreputable acquaintance of Arthur's. Mary had helped Burnwell steal the coronet, but Arthur had witnessed the theft and struggled with Burnwell to recover it. Arthur had refused to implicate Mary out of love for her. Holmes had tracked Burnwell, confronted him, and recovered the missing gems. Arthur was exonerated, though Holder was devastated by Mary's betrayal.
The Adventure of the Copper Beeches
Violet Hunter sought Holmes's advice about a governess position at the Copper Beeches, which offered an unusually high salary but required her to cut her hair short and wear specific clothing. Holmes found the conditions suspicious but advised her to accept if she wished. Two weeks later, Hunter summoned Holmes and Watson to Winchester.
Crime is common. Logic is rare. Therefore it is upon the logic rather than upon the crime that you should dwell. You have degraded what should have been a course of lectures into a series of tales.
Hunter described her strange experiences at the Copper Beeches. Her employer, Jephro Rucastle, had her sit in a specific window wearing a blue dress while he told amusing stories. She discovered a locked wing of the house and a fierce mastiff that was kept hungry and released at night. She also found a coil of hair matching her own in a locked drawer.
Holmes deduced that Hunter was being used to impersonate Rucastle's daughter, Alice, who was imprisoned in the locked wing. The man watching from the road was Alice's fiancé, whom Rucastle wanted to convince that Alice no longer cared for him. Holmes and Watson arrived to find Alice had escaped with her fiancé's help. Rucastle was attacked by his own starved mastiff, and though he survived, he was permanently broken in health. Alice married her fiancé and moved to Mauritius, while Hunter became the head of a private school.