The Unwritten Rules of a Detective Story. Sherlock Holmes Essay

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The Unwritten Rules of a Detective Story
Introduction
A detective story -according to C Hugh Holman’s A Handbook to Literature- should follow some “unwritten rules” as a guide to what constitutes a good detective piece. Some of these rules dictate that the detective must be a memorable character with uncanny intelligence and unparalleled observation skills. He must be matched with an equally clever opponent. The crime must be attention worthy and the reader should be afforded the opportunity to try figure out the solution together with the detective. At the end, the solution must be reasonably explained.
In “The Adventure of the speckled Band”, Conan Doyle satisfied these unwritten rules. The detective, Sherlock, is introduced as being unusually clever and observant. He deduced that Helen Stoner had travelled on a dog-cart on heavy roads simply from the pattern of mud patches on her jacket. The opponent, Mr. Roylott was exceptionally clever. He had killed Julia Stoner and gotten away with it and was about to do it again to her twin sister. The crime was significant enough as it revolved around murder and as Sherlock put it, “it was dark enough and sinister enough”.
The suspects had been introduced to the reader early in the story. There was the cunning Dr. Roylott and the unpredictable band of gypsies. It was now up to the reader to deductively try to pick out the guilty party. The solution was logically explained by Sherlock. Hav...