"The Speckled Band"

 "The Speckled Band" (1892) by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle [read from story included in the Sherlock Holmes jigsaw puzzle of the same name]

A locked room mystery from the pen of Conan Doyle. It introduces Holmes and Watson to Miss Helen Stoner who comes to the great detective in terror from she knows not what. She and her twin sister had been living with their step-father after their mother's death. He had inherited the mother's money--with the proviso that he provide for the young women and that an annual sum should be given to them upon their marriages.  Her twin died two years ago just prior to her marriage. No cause of death was found, but just before she died she told Helen, "It was the band! The speckled band!" The room had been locked until her sister opened and the windows barred. Helen believes she died of pure fright, but has no idea what caused the terror. Now, two years later, Helen is preparing to wed. And she has been forced by certain "necessary" repairs to move into the very chamber where her sister died. Holmes listens to the details of her story and insists that he and Watson must come at once to Stoke Moran and investigate if the remaining Stoner sister is to be saved.

This is a classic Holmes story--one that shows up often in English classrooms, along with "The Red-Headed League." It is one of my favorites because of the initially impossible situation and the cold-blooded ruthlessness of the killer. I was a bit disappointed in the jigsaw puzzle, however. Supposedly, you read up to a certain point and then put the puzzle together. Once the picture is complete, it's supposed to provide you with clues that will enable you to solve the mystery before Holmes reveals all. There is, as far as I could see (and as far as my son could see--I asked him to take a look as well) nothing in the picture that you didn't already learn about in the story up to the break. No new clue. Nothing. So-- ★★★★★ for the story and ★★★ for the puzzle. The picture is nice (except for that incredibly ugly carpet), but it didn't do its job. 

First line: On glancing over my notes of the seventy-odd cases in which I have during the last eight years studied the methods of my friend Sherlock Holmes, I find many tragic, some comic, a large number merely strange, but none commonplace.

Last line: "In this way I am no doubt indirectly responsible for [redacted]'s death, and I cannot say that it is likely to weigh very heavily upon my conscience."
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Deaths = 4 (one beaten; one railway accident; two snake bite)