Discussion Post: The Adventure of the Missing Three-Quarter

[spacemutineer.livejournal.com]

Hey, everyone! Happy Sunday! Let's talk The Adventure of the Missing Three-Quarter. What did you think of it? As always, here are a few questions and thoughts of my own to get you started. Please add yours!

- Watson's recounting of his "weaning" Holmes off cocaine in this story stands out, especially in Watson's continual (and justified) fear the addiction will return at any moment. Do you think Holmes would have ever bothered to stop without Watson around him? Do you think he is glad he did?

- Why is everyone so immediately convinced of some kind of foul play in this case? Godfrey receives a note, is clearly deeply upset by it, and leaves immediately with an equally affected man. There isn't anything I can see in the porter's story to indicate crime and danger in his disappearance. Sure, the match is important, but did no one consider a personal or family emergency might take precedence for him?

- Both Holmes and Watson are terribly impressed with Dr. Leslie Armstrong. Holmes even goes so far as to compare him to Moriarty in terms of genius and ability! But does that actually seem warranted, given the man's decisions and behavior? Intelligent, certainly. But a worthy heir to Moriarty? Really?

- Dr. Armstrong gets it in his head that Holmes' client is Lord Mount-James and their cat and mouse game comes about entirely from that assumption. Should Holmes have corrected him? He may have been able to cut days off his investigation, although perhaps that's not really what he wanted. Even several days of futile searching is better than stultifying boredom. (And no cocaine to quell it...)

- Almost forgot to mention my favorite part: Holmes' delicious dry wit! "Neither dog nor man liked the look of my stick, however, and the matter fell through. Relations were strained after that." Ha!

The Missing Three-Quarter: Syringes and Souls

[hardboiledbaby]

Canon Story: The Adventure of the Missing Three-Quarter
Title: Syringes and Souls
Author: hardboiledbaby
Rating: PG
Warnings: none
A/N: Two related 60s, but each stands on its own.

---

A hypodermic syringe is a most useful instrument for a consulting detective.

I suppose I cannot fault Watson for assuming the worst when he saw the implement in my hand. Heaven knows, I have used it many times for a less than noble purpose. Too many times, perhaps.

But he should take heart: for this time, someone lost was found.

*****

A hypodermic syringe is a most useful instrument for a doctor. However, in Holmes' hands….

Laugh as he might, the sight of it rekindled in me a dread that will never truly die. It merely lies dormant, sleeping—just as his craving does.

I must be ever vigilant. If I cannot cure his body, then I must safeguard his soul.

The Adventure of the Missing Three-Quarter: The Wagging Tail

[thesmallhobbit.livejournal.com]

Canon Story: The Adventure of the Missing Three-Quarter
Title: The Wagging Tail
Author: thesmallhobbit
Rating: G

How I love that smell; I could follow it to the ends of the earth. 

Right, let’s be off then gents. 

Where are you trying to go?  Isn’t it obvious that we turn off onto this grassy lane?  And it’s easier on my paws.

Isn’t this fun?  Come on, come on.

Here we are.  Look, I’ve found it for you!

The Adventure of the Missing Three-Quarter: Memorializing

[methylviolet10b]

Author: methylviolet10b
Rating: PG
Character(s): Sherlock Holmes, Dr. John Watson
Summary: Holmes deduces Watson's motives for memorializing this particular case.
Warnings: Spoilers for MISS.
Word Count: 60
Author's Notes: 60 words of my own inspired by one of the canon stories.
Disclaimer: I don't own them.

MISS -- The Adventure of the Missing Three-Quarter

It was a trivial case to start, and so it remained, when all was said and done. Yet I understood why my Watson chose to memorialize it.

My fretful toying with a hypodermic.

His failure to recognize a famous fellow-physician.

The blonde, blue-eyed young wife, dead untimely, leaving a husband to helplessly mourn.

He wrote it to exorcise the ghosts.

The Adventure of the Missing Three-Quarter: Specialist

[spacemutineer.livejournal.com]

Canon Story: The Adventure of the Missing Three-Quarter
Title: Specialist
Author: spacemutineer
Rating: G

"A very eminent specialist," he said as I poked at the last of my runny eggs at breakfast. I believed him, of course. And of course, he was telling the truth in his way. But I should have known then and there. Sherlock Holmes does not so freely compliment another detective's skill.

Not a human one, at any rate.