Monthly Archives: June 2022

NEW! “The Musgrave Ritual,” by Arthur Conan Doyle, a Sherlock Holmes Story

Sherlock Holmes

In this early entry in the Sherlock Holmes canon, Doyle has Sherlock Holmes doing most of the talking. That’s unusual in the canon, because it is typically John Watson who tells the story, not Holmes. This was on Doyle’s short list of favorite stories, and it is easy to see why. It has elements of both the familiar and the macabre, in terms of detective story structure. One character goes mad and another is buried… but, let’s not have any spoilers. Suffice to say that Holmes has little to go on in solving this mystery, but he makes a lot of what little he has with which to work. The Holmes in this story is a bit sheepish and shorn of pride, another unusual turn for the “greatest consulting detective in the world,” and for a man usually convinced of the truth of the label.

The Musgrave Ritual, Sidney Paget

Holmes gets to the bottom of the case of the Musgrave Ritual

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NEW! “The Adventure of the Three Students,” a Sherlock Holmes story by Arthur Conan Doyle

Sherlock Holmes

In this rather offbeat addition to the Sherlock Holmes Canon, Holmes somehow finds himself on a college campus battling the timeless forces of student cheating. Three students are each suspected of taking an advance and fraudulent peek at test questions for an exam qualifying them for an important scholarship. Only one can be guilty. When the examiner knows that Holmes is on campus, he implores our hero to find the “rascal” and expose him. It seems Holmes cannot escape the world of crime no matter where he travels. Unlike in “The Regent Squires,” however, Holmes does not welcome this particular intrusion in his plans. He has to be converted to it by the interesting nature of the problem. In my audio narration, I adopt the style of Jeremy Brett, in my view the best Holmes ever to appear on film. Read for you, of course, by Rick Reiman.

The Adventure of the Three Students, Drawing by Sydney Paget in the Public Domain

Gilchrist confesses in “The Adventure of the Three Students”

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“The Adventure of Charles Augustus Milverton,” a Sherlock Holmes Story

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READ FOR YOU BY RICK REIMAN. In this story by Arthur Conan Doyle, Holmes must represent a client being blackmailed by the notorious criminal, Charles Augustus Milverton. Once again, Holmes uses the practices of the criminal himself, something he seems all too eager to employ in more than one of the stories in the Sherlock Holmes canon. Watson joins in the effort and the result is an action story piled upon a mystery tale.

Charles Augustus Milverton

Holmes and Watson confront Charles Augustus Milverton, the notorious blackmailer.

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Narrating a Sherlock Holmes Short Story: The Clues behind the Clues

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Here I share some insights into what I have learned about the hidden Sherlock Holmes, from reading and narrating the Conan Doyle stories. To do this I use one of his most popular stories by way of illustration, “The Adventure of the Speckled Band.” You can listen to my narration of this classic short story elsewhere on AudiblySpeaking.com.

Reference Links

Narrations by Rick Reiman on Audibly Speaking of:

The Five Orange Pips

The Adventure of the Speckled Band

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NEW! “The Five Orange Pips,” A Sherlock Holmes Story, read by Rick Reiman

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Once again, as in “A Study in Scarlett,” Arthur Conan Doyle reaches across the pond for material for a Sherlock Holmes story. In this case, it is a short story, about the long reach of the past and the legacy of the Ku Klux Klan in America. Three generations of Englishman face death from the grandfather’s involvement in the racist activities of the Klan. This is one of the few stories where, although Sherlock Holmes solves the mystery, he is late, much too late, in doing so.

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