The Great Adventures of Sherlock Holmes Entry 3

February 22 2012
Book Pages(126-211)


Entry III:


Stories:  Priory School/Beryl Coronet
    In this adventure, Dr. Huxtable, the principal and founder of the Priory School hires Holmes and Watson to locate a kidnapped student and the student's father grants rewards money if his son is found. During their search, they ask people when was the last time they've seen the missing boy. They continued their trail by help of certain people who told Holmes where the boy went. The trails lead to an inn at the other side of the country. Inside the inn, there was a cock fighting match. However, it turns out the father made it to his boy in time as well while Holmes and Watson have been searching for the boy. The story was, the boy secretly made an agreement to the kidnappers to make a wager on which rooster would win in a fight. The boy wanted to prove his worth by gambling, and the kidnappers fled while the son and father regrouped. Nevertheless, the son was found.
   In this adventure, a banker keeps certain jewels and the Beryl Coronet, one of the most precious jewels in his storage room, until the next day, they vanished. Holmes and Watson are hired once more to investigate who took the jewels. Because it was winter, Holmes could track the criminals by their footprints. By asking the people and workers of the Coronet jewel place, Holmes learned of the banker's niece. Apparently, the niece stole the coronet and other goods and escaped to make her own jewel store and make her own wealth in dishonesty. She got away, but Holmes has other plans. He did tell the banker of the niece's treachery, but the niece doesn't know of her uncle's data, so he can contact her, then trap her for her incarceration.
    The dialogue in these set of stories are another interesting factor in this book. They always talk about the important matters at hand and make a possible deduction that allows us to wonder if real life detectives think the same way they do. The book seems more focused into more of the story than what the narrator has to day. The narrator (John Watson), is more focused in communicating with Holmes as if this book is in real life, and no narrator is talking to the reader. Sometimes the dialogue can be hard to follow and I forget who's saying what to who. The text is probably 1900s British, there are terms that are seen as a polite manner in this book.
   These stories in the book appear to go from mysterious and suspenseful to more dramatic to making us feel what the criminals want and their motives. This book does bring the idea of what's called the 'motus operandi', to what the criminals motives are and their psychology behind their acts. Criminals do appear like civil beings but even though they challenge Holmes and other police, they still are citizens in our standers and that leads us to understand how detectives try to reason with others with psychology.