The Adventures of the Speckled Band

In the simplest terms, “The Adventures of the Speckled Band” qualifies as a detective story because the overall purpose of the story revolves around a character seeking help to solve a murder. The victim first poses the mystery to the detective and then the detective and his assistant work, specifically through means of logic, to piece together the plausible causes of the mystery. The style of the writing, largely dominated by dialogue, helps the reader understand the details Miss Stoner explains to Holmes, starting the investigation. The logic Holmes uses throughout the story serves as the largest convention of the detective story, such as when Holmes revealed at the end of the story that he knew before they ever reached Stoke Moran that there would be a ventilator between Dr. Roylott’s room and Julia’s room. However, it is not until the end of the story that the reader realizes Holmes expected the ventilator because Julia could smell the smoke from Dr. Roylott smoking. Also, the attention given to fine details were aspects of the story that I expected to find in this detective story. Holmes was the first to notice that the bell hung in Julia’s room could not actually be rang and that the bed was clamped securely to the floor. The simple sentence structure and basic diction used in the story also allowed the reader to easily follow Holmes’ actions throughout the story.

However, I was surprised that the detective story took the perspective of Dr. Watson rather than of Sherlock Holmes. As the detective, Sherlock Holmes led the investigation and picked up on the clues that ultimately led to him solving the mystery murder of Julia; Dr. Watson merely enjoys watching Holmes at work. As a reader, I did not figure out the significance of the clues that Sherlock Holmes found until the murder was actually solved because Dr. Watson did not fully understand what Holmes was hypothesizing in his head. This story followed the basic layout that most other detective stories I have read and detective shows I have watched followed. A problem was posed to a detective. The detective conducted a series of questions to gather basic information and hypothesize solutions to the problem. The detective visited the scene of the problem. The detective solved the problem. Therefore, the layout was along the lines of what I expected for this story.