🎙️ SHOW NOTES — 1001 Sherlock Holmes Stories & The Best of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle

The Adventure of the Speckled Band

Doyle's Favorite Holmes Story — A Locked‑Room Mystery Filled With Fear, Suspense, and Deadly Secrets

In "The Adventure of the Speckled Band," Arthur Conan Doyle delivers one of the most chilling and tightly constructed mysteries in the entire Sherlock Holmes canon — a story he himself called his personal favorite. It begins when a terrified young woman, Helen Stoner, arrives at Baker Street before dawn, convinced that her life is in danger. Her sister died under mysterious circumstances two years earlier, whispering a final, cryptic phrase: "The speckled band."

Holmes and Watson travel to the gloomy Stoke Moran estate, where they encounter Helen's stepfather, the violent and unpredictable Dr. Grimesby Roylott — a man whose temper is as dangerous as the exotic creatures he keeps on the grounds. The old house is filled with strange noises, bolted shutters, and a room that seems designed for something far more sinister than sleep.

As Holmes examines the clues — the bed fixed to the floor, the bell‑rope that doesn't ring, the ventilator that leads nowhere — he begins to piece together a plot as cold‑blooded as any he has faced. What follows is one of the most suspenseful nighttime vigils in detective fiction, culminating in a revelation that has thrilled readers and listeners for more than a century.

A masterpiece of atmosphere, deduction, and rising tension, "The Speckled Band" remains a defining example of why Sherlock Holmes endures — and why Doyle himself held this tale above all the rest.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Arthur Conan Doyle (ACD) write 56 Sherlock Ho0lmes adventures. Afterwards, when asked which were his favorites- he listed 12, then later listed another 7. I went back in my archives and saw that a few needed some touching up or total do-overs. I decided to offer these to save you the trouble of going back to the archives. 

Here are his fav 19: 1), The Adventure of the Speckled Band (1892), 2), The Red-Headed League (1891), 3.) The Adventure of the Dancing Men (1903), 4.) The Final Problem (1893), 5), A Scandal in Bohemia (1891), 6), The Adventure of the Empty House (1903), 7), The 5 Orange Pips m(1891), 8,)The Adventure of the Second Stain (1904), 9), The Adventure of The Devil's Foot (1910), 10), The Adventure of the Priory School (1904), 11), Tjhe Musgrave Ritual (1893), 12), The Reigate Squires (1893), 13) Silver Blaze (1892), 14), The Adventure of the Bruce Partington Plans (1908), 15), The Crooked Man (1893)16), The Man With The Twisted Lip (1891), 17) The Greek Interpreter (1893), 18), The Resident Patient (1893), 19) The Naval Treaty (1893..

WOW 1893 was a busy year for Doyle!

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