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sherlock60This week we are reading The Adventure of the Golden Pince-nez.
Our case opens on a dreary day -- a storm is going through London and the boys have spent the time reading and organizing. But on the last night of the storm, they are visited by Inspector Hopkins, a policeman who has tried to emulate Holmes' methods.
Hopkins was summoned to a home where a young secretary has died.
The home is simply set up -- an older man with a small household and in need of some extra hands for getting around. He begins work on a book in his field and so starts employing a secretary for the dictation. One morning, while the house keeper is cleaning, she hears a loud sound and discovers that the secretary has been murdered. She swears his last words were 'The professor - it was she'.
When Hopkins arrives, he employs Holmes' methods and cannot see how anyone had left the scene. He also brings a pair of golden pince-nez which was found in the hands of the secretary -- unusual since the young man had excellent eye sight -- that it is unlikely that the man committed suicide given where the stab wound had come from and that it hadn't been an accident since the knife was found some feet away from the body.
Holmes is naturally wanting more information and goes the next morning to see the scene for himself -- some is missing given the recent weather, but a turn around the garden to see what remains of the steps and a talk with the housekeeper about the older man's recent diet reveals more details.
A quick talk post lunch and Holmes reveals that the murderer hadn't left -- she'd gotten turned around without her glasses and ended up in the room of the older man, her husband.
She, him, and a few others were part of a revolution in Russia; he turned them all in and ran off to England to hide. The wife however had a more faithful love and her diary would set him free of his sentence if she could just get her hands on it. Unfortunately, her husband had kept the diary. When her sentence was up, she left Russia to track him down. She had one secretary on her pay who drew up a map of the house and a copy of the key to the desk where the diary was kept.
She took her chance one morning when no one was reported to be in the study, but she was interrupted by the secretary. A scuffle broke out, he grabbed her glasses, and she grabbed something to knock him loose from herself, but it was a knife instead of a blunt object. In her hurry to escape, she left the room, but turned the wrong way. Her husband concealed her in his room until the time came for her to leave without being seen.
Unfortunately, Holmes reveals her before she can. She had taken poison when she realized the game was up and pressed them all to free her love still in Russia before she dies.
And so closes the case of the Golden Pince-nez. Thoughts?
Our case opens on a dreary day -- a storm is going through London and the boys have spent the time reading and organizing. But on the last night of the storm, they are visited by Inspector Hopkins, a policeman who has tried to emulate Holmes' methods.
Hopkins was summoned to a home where a young secretary has died.
The home is simply set up -- an older man with a small household and in need of some extra hands for getting around. He begins work on a book in his field and so starts employing a secretary for the dictation. One morning, while the house keeper is cleaning, she hears a loud sound and discovers that the secretary has been murdered. She swears his last words were 'The professor - it was she'.
When Hopkins arrives, he employs Holmes' methods and cannot see how anyone had left the scene. He also brings a pair of golden pince-nez which was found in the hands of the secretary -- unusual since the young man had excellent eye sight -- that it is unlikely that the man committed suicide given where the stab wound had come from and that it hadn't been an accident since the knife was found some feet away from the body.
Holmes is naturally wanting more information and goes the next morning to see the scene for himself -- some is missing given the recent weather, but a turn around the garden to see what remains of the steps and a talk with the housekeeper about the older man's recent diet reveals more details.
A quick talk post lunch and Holmes reveals that the murderer hadn't left -- she'd gotten turned around without her glasses and ended up in the room of the older man, her husband.
She, him, and a few others were part of a revolution in Russia; he turned them all in and ran off to England to hide. The wife however had a more faithful love and her diary would set him free of his sentence if she could just get her hands on it. Unfortunately, her husband had kept the diary. When her sentence was up, she left Russia to track him down. She had one secretary on her pay who drew up a map of the house and a copy of the key to the desk where the diary was kept.
She took her chance one morning when no one was reported to be in the study, but she was interrupted by the secretary. A scuffle broke out, he grabbed her glasses, and she grabbed something to knock him loose from herself, but it was a knife instead of a blunt object. In her hurry to escape, she left the room, but turned the wrong way. Her husband concealed her in his room until the time came for her to leave without being seen.
Unfortunately, Holmes reveals her before she can. She had taken poison when she realized the game was up and pressed them all to free her love still in Russia before she dies.
And so closes the case of the Golden Pince-nez. Thoughts?
