Arthur Conan Doyle considered the 1892 story The Adventure of the Speckled Band his best Sherlock Holmes story.
Holmes’s client is Helen Stoner who is suspicious of her sister’s death. Her sister, Julia’s, last words were “it was the band, the speckled band!” Julia had been engaged and promised large annuity from her late mother’s income. Now Helen’s boyfriend wants to marry her and she is scared for her life.
Holmes discovers more about the family, the girls are taken care of by their ill-tempered and violent stepfather. If his stepdaughters marry, he would be left with very little. Because of this, the suspicion falls on him.
Holmes and Dr. Watson go to Stroke Moran, the family’s heavily mortgaged ancestral home. There are many disturbing things about the house There are strange noises heard at night, gypsies who live on the premises and wild animals such as a cheetah and a baboon.
The Adventure of the Speckled Band is the fourth in Sherlock Holmes month
The Adventure of the Speckled Band can be found in your local library, the website for the Bergen County Cooperative Library System can be found here or at your local Barnes and Noble in Hackensack.
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