Selections from the Adventures of Sherlock Holmes: The Man With the Twisted Lip, a Case of Identity, the Boscombe Valley Mystery

The Man with the Twisted Lip: "The Man with the Twisted Lip" is the sixth of the 12 stories in The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes. After rescuing a friend's husband from an opium den, Dr. Watson is startled to find his friend Sherlock Holmes there, disguised as an old man apparently trying to extract information from the addicts in the den. Holmes is on the scent of a man who is living a double life. This story in unique among Holmes tales in two ways. First, it turns out that no crime has been committed and there is no villain. Secondly, and unlike in his other stories, Holmes does not explain how he solved the mystery, but leaves it to the intelligent listener to work it out. A Case of Identity: "A Case of Identity" is one of the 56 short Sherlock Holmes stories written by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. It is the third story in The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes. The story revolves around the case of Miss Mary Sutherland, a woman with a large income due to the interest from a fund set up for her. She is engaged to a quiet Londoner who has mysteriously disappeared. Sherlock Holmes solves the case rather easily, much as it puzzles Watson. The Boscombe Valley Mystery: "The Boscombe Valley Mystery" is one of the 56 short Sherlock Holmes stories written by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. It is the fourth of the 12 stories in The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes and was first published in the Strand Magazine in 1891. Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson are in Boscombe Valley to investigate the death of Mr. Charles McCarthy. Inspector Lestrade, of Scotland Yard, whose meagre abilities are often upstaged by Holmes's brilliant deductions, has concluded that it is a murder, and that McCarthy's son James is the killer. The facts point to something much more complicated, however, and Holmes employs his keen powers of deduction to unravel a tangle of questions and put Lestrade to shame yet again. The Adventure of the Speckled Band: "The Adventure of the Speckled Band" is the 8th of 12 stories collected in The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes. It was originally published in Strand Magazine in 1892. Doyle thought that this was his best Holmes story. In fact, he thought so much of it that he wrote and produced a play based on the story. The play, originally called The Stonor Case, differed from the story in several details but was essentially the same.