![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
alafaye posting in ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png){kind=small}
sherlock60This week we are reading The Adventure of the Devil's Foot. It carries the theme of revenge.
Our tale opens as Watson reminicses upon Holmes former reticence to receive alcolades which mean nothing apparently when Watson is looking for a case to publish; Holmes instructions ask Watson to publish the one about the Cornish Horror. So Watson goes looking through his notes and we find ourselves at the end of the century on the Cornish coast where Holmes and Watson are vacationing. They are of course interrupted by a case.
The vicar -- a man who shared Holmes' passing interest in the local archelogy -- and his tennant (Mr. Tregennis) had visited his family the night before (all in good health) but the next day, in the room he left them in, the sister was dead and the brothers out of their senses. The housekeeper heard nothing. Holmes takes up the case; they all go to see the scene and for Holmes to investigate, though he can see nothing that gives him any leads. As he is turning over the facts, Holmes recieves a visitor -- Dr Sterndale -- who received a telegram from the vicar about the events; Dr Sterndale returned quickly from where he was to set off for Africa because the afflicted family are cousins to him. When he hears that Holmes has no theory for the case, Sterndale departs for his hotel.
The following morning, Mr. Tregennis is found dead. Holmes' investigation of the room shows him that someone had gotten entrance to Mr. Tregennis room and that the lamp had been lit at a strange hour and for longer than warranted. Further, in this as with the siblings, people who first entered the room before it was aired -- because in both cases, the room was stifling -- fainted and took ill themselves. There was therefore something the fire at the home of the three and in the oil lamp of the fourth.
Holmes sends for Dr Sterndale and we find out the full truth of what happened. The Tregennis family had sold their shares of a mine, but it had resulted in a quarel in which Mr. Tregenis felt he was owed more. To all appearances, however the family had made up. And yet when he was visiting Sterndale, Tregenis stole an African poison to get what he felt he was owed. He put the powder in the fire and left his family to die or go mad. Sterndale returned to get his revenge and put the powder in Tregenis' lamp.
And so closes the case of the Devil's Foot. Thoughts?
Our tale opens as Watson reminicses upon Holmes former reticence to receive alcolades which mean nothing apparently when Watson is looking for a case to publish; Holmes instructions ask Watson to publish the one about the Cornish Horror. So Watson goes looking through his notes and we find ourselves at the end of the century on the Cornish coast where Holmes and Watson are vacationing. They are of course interrupted by a case.
The vicar -- a man who shared Holmes' passing interest in the local archelogy -- and his tennant (Mr. Tregennis) had visited his family the night before (all in good health) but the next day, in the room he left them in, the sister was dead and the brothers out of their senses. The housekeeper heard nothing. Holmes takes up the case; they all go to see the scene and for Holmes to investigate, though he can see nothing that gives him any leads. As he is turning over the facts, Holmes recieves a visitor -- Dr Sterndale -- who received a telegram from the vicar about the events; Dr Sterndale returned quickly from where he was to set off for Africa because the afflicted family are cousins to him. When he hears that Holmes has no theory for the case, Sterndale departs for his hotel.
The following morning, Mr. Tregennis is found dead. Holmes' investigation of the room shows him that someone had gotten entrance to Mr. Tregennis room and that the lamp had been lit at a strange hour and for longer than warranted. Further, in this as with the siblings, people who first entered the room before it was aired -- because in both cases, the room was stifling -- fainted and took ill themselves. There was therefore something the fire at the home of the three and in the oil lamp of the fourth.
Holmes sends for Dr Sterndale and we find out the full truth of what happened. The Tregennis family had sold their shares of a mine, but it had resulted in a quarel in which Mr. Tregenis felt he was owed more. To all appearances, however the family had made up. And yet when he was visiting Sterndale, Tregenis stole an African poison to get what he felt he was owed. He put the powder in the fire and left his family to die or go mad. Sterndale returned to get his revenge and put the powder in Tregenis' lamp.
And so closes the case of the Devil's Foot. Thoughts?
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2017-12-16 02:35 am (UTC)I love the entire sequence in which Watson and Holmes test the poison on themselves, and Watson is able to break through his paralysis of terror once he catches a glimpse of Holmes's face and recognizes how close Holmes is to death or madness, and Watson saves their lives, and Holmes gives him a heartfelt apology for having endangered them both so recklessly.
So, for me, the character and relationship beats are fantastic, plus I think the mystery is genuinely clever and surprising and disturbing. I give this one an A+, thank you Sir Arthur :)
no subject
Date: 2017-12-17 02:00 am (UTC)