Sherlock Holmes and the Speckled Band
Classical Stories · No. 99 — A locked-room mystery you can try to solve alongside Holmes.
- Classical Stories
- 41 min
- Ages 15–99
- 6 chapters
About this audiobook
Helen Stoner comes to Sherlock Holmes in fear for her life. Two years ago her twin sister died in her locked bedroom in their gloomy country house, her last words a cry about a 'speckled band'; the door had been bolted from the inside, the windows barred, and no cause of death could be found. Now Helen, soon to be married, has been moved by her sinister stepfather — a violent doctor who keeps exotic animals and gypsy visitors — into that same fatal room, and at night she hears the same low whistle her sister described. Holmes investigates the house with his famous eye for tiny details: a bell-pull that rings nothing, a bed bolted to the floor, a ventilator between rooms, a saucer of milk, a safe. Piecing together clues the reader has seen too, he and Watson keep watch in the deadly room by night and confront the truth of the 'speckled band' — and the stepfather's own cruelty turns fatally back upon him.
Why it's worth a listen
A terrified young woman comes to the world's greatest detective with a strange story: her sister died in a locked room, gasping a few last words about a 'speckled band,' and now she has been moved into that very room. Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson take the case — and the listener gets every clue Holmes gets, and can try to solve it first. The most famous locked-room mystery in fiction, a perfect finale-eve puzzle of pure observation and deduction.
A question to keep
How much can you learn about the world simply by noticing what everyone else overlooks?
Chapters
- The Early Visitor at Baker Street
- The Tragedy of Stoke Moran
- The Locked Room and the New Threat
- The Secrets of the Bedchamber
- The Silent Vigil
- A Question to Keep