Facts about the Stories

One benefit of being laid up with a traumatic Brian injury is I have always had 1895 to fall back on and concentrate my memory and ability to enjoy the world that Watson and Doyle created.

Even the basic information I had read before has an enchanting New feeling about it. For example, Sherlock Holmes stories are thought of as murder mystery stories. A check of the wealth of information in the volume Sherlock Holmes for Dummies by Steven Doyle and David Crowder reveals facts like:

• 263 dead bodies in the cases
• 119 were murders
• 3 can be classified as locked room mysteries such as the Speckled Band, The Empty House and the Valley of Fear
• 3 can be crime prevention as The Red-Beaded League, Solitary Cyclist, The Three Garridebs
• 4 Espionage – The 2nd Stain, The Bruce Partington plans, Last Bow, Naval Treaty.
• 4 missing persons as in A Case of Identity, The Noble Bachelor, The Man with a Twisted lip. The Priory School.
• 3 weird tales – The Yellow Face, The Crooked Man, Veiled Lodger.

Long stories: Watson and Doyle went a different way in adding a tale with a section explaining the background of what happened before. The three long stories are great tales yet the best one has no background – The Hound of the Baskervilles.

Thanks Steve and David in helping me mend.

Would any of my fellow Watsonians like to suggest any changes?
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