I Hear of Sherlock Everywhere

Arthur and George Come to TV

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“I think that this case is very much in your line.” [CARD]</h4>
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Martin Clunes (<i>Doc Martin</i>) will be starring as Sir Arthur Conan Doyle in a new three-part ITV drama called <i>Arthur & George</i>. The series is based on the inspired-by-true-events <a href="http://amzn.to/1CbM1MT" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">novel of the same name</a>, which chronicled Arthur Conan Doyle’s foray into solving a real mystery himself: <a href="http://britishheritage.com/sir-arthur-conan-doyle-the-case-of-george-edalji/" target="_blank">the case of George Edalji</a>, wrongfully convicted for animal maiming.<br />
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From the synopsis on ITV.com: <br />
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Following the death of his wife, Louisa, Conan Doyle has become a “bore and a sulk” by his own admission.  All around him do their best to bolster Arthur from his grief and mourning including his beloved ‘Mam’ who implores him to “sink his teeth into something.  If not a book then some new pursuit.”</blockquote>
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The "new pursuit" comes in the form of a letter from George Edalji, a Parsee solicitor who was sent to prison for three years for a crime he didn't commit. Historically, Conan Doyle was convinced of Edalji's innocence and became an active investigator, going to the crime scenes, interviewing participants and critiquing the reliability of the witnesses. Eventually, Edalji was pardoned, and the case and its associated campaign were factors in the creation of the Court of Criminal Appeal in 1907.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiwvy19fudifVlCyD_p2ikwCZy7DsAVN5dmZolFjKLF0gsJklpJPxnNrjXFbdTZxPsj-STP4e8kch-W5oQs6DZQi2kFHBU_N_EMMd7_4H5VEKtqHEnONERTF8zhLUjN4X-T0Cr-KorW51YW/s1600/Arthur+&+George+-+Arthur.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="Martin Clunes starring as Arthur Conan Doyle in Arthur & George" border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiwvy19fudifVlCyD_p2ikwCZy7DsAVN5dmZolFjKLF0gsJklpJPxnNrjXFbdTZxPsj-STP4e8kch-W5oQs6DZQi2kFHBU_N_EMMd7_4H5VEKtqHEnONERTF8zhLUjN4X-T0Cr-KorW51YW/s1600/Arthur+&+George+-+Arthur.jpg" title="Martin Clunes as Sir Arthur Conan Doyle" width="640" /></a></div>
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According to <a href="http://www.radiotimes.com/news/2015-02-16/conan-doyle-investigates-martin-clunes-wants-a-full-series-as-the-sleuthing-sherlock-holmes-creator">Radio Times</a>, Clunes would love to turn the three-part show into a full series in which Doyle investigates other crimes. A long-running series could combine more real life events with fictional elements. <i>Arthur & George</i> writer Ed Whitmore (<i>Silent Witnes</i>s, <i>Waking the Dead</i>) revealed that ITV is waiting to see how the three-parter performs before committing to more.<br />
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Clunes is joined by cast members Arsher Ali (<i>The Missing</i>) as George Edalji, Charles Edwards (<i>Downton Abbey</i>) as Doyle’s secretary, Alfred "Woodie" Wood, Art Malik (<i>Holby City</i>) as the Reverend Shapurji Edalji, Emma Fielding (<i>Silk</i>) as his mother Charlotte Edalji, Hattie Morahan (<i>The Bletchley Circle</i>) as Jean Leckie and Sandra Voe (<i>Vera Drake</i>) as Mam.<br />
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<i>Arthur & George</i> airs Monday, March 2 at 9:00 pm GMT on ITV. <br />
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<a href="http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/masterpiece/programs/features/news/masterpiece-adds-more-new-titles-2015/">PBS has also announced</a> that <i>Arthur & George</i> will be joining its <i>Masterpiece</i> line-up later in the year, with no specific air date set.<br />
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You can <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NfAWe6PvCk8">view the trailer here</a>:<br />
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Interesting timing too: <a href="http://tinyurl.com/m5y2h25" target="_blank">a series of thirty Conan Doyle letters pertaining to the Edalji Case will be coming to auction</a> at Bonhams in London on March 18.<br />
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Arthur and George Come to TV

“I think that this case is very much in your line.” [CARD] Martin Clunes ( Doc Martin ) will be starring as Sir Arthur Conan Doyle in a...

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by Katie Magnusson

Remembering Leonard Nimoy

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"dignified and logical" [LADY] </h4>
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Leonard Nimoy, best known for his role as Mr. Spock in <i>Star Trek</i> on television and film, <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2015/02/27/arts/television/leonard-nimoy-spock-of-star-trek-dies-at-83.html?_r=1" target="_blank">has passed away</a> at the age of 83. </div>
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While Nimoy was a poet, photographer and musician, he is most widely known for his acting - a profession he had pursued continuously since beginning in community theater at the age of eight.</div>
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As Sherlockians know, he also had a connection to Sherlock Holmes. The image above is Nimoy portraying Sherlock Holmes in a 1975-6 revival of William Gillette's famous play "Sherlock Holmes" by the Royal Shakespeare Company.</div>
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Playing the great detective was not a stretch - not only because of Nimoy's lifelong practice of the craft, but because of the connection between the highly logical Mr. Spock. Those who paid attention during <i>Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country</i> heard the half Vulcan utter:</div>
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"An ancestor of mine maintained that if you eliminate the impossible, whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth."</blockquote>
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Nicholas Meyer, BSI ("A Fine Morocco Case"), who wrote the book and screenplay for <i>The Seven Per Cent Solution</i> also wrote and directed <i>Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan</i> - and the above mentioned <i>Star Trek VI</i>, so there should be no doubt about the hand that steered Holmes and Spock together.<br />
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And for those of you who are truly into arcana and wish to honor the memory of Leonard Nimoy, we'll leave you with this portrayal of the detective in the documentary short <i>Sherlock Holmes: Interior Motive</i> (1975).</div>
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For many fans, it will be hard to accept that Nimoy is no longer with us. Or as Spock would say, "Highly illogical."</div>
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R.I.P. Leonard Nimoy (1931 - 2015).</div>
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Also see:<br />
<a href="http://www.ihearofsherlock.com/2010/07/search-of-glor_3.html#.VPCo7fnF8oo" target="_blank">"In Search Of..." [GLOR]</a><br />
<a href="http://www.ihearofsherlock.com/2010/08/have-figured-out-your-connections-3gar_27.html#.VPCo6_nF8oo" target="_blank">"I Have Figured Out Your Connections" [3GAR]</a><br />
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Remembering Leonard Nimoy

"dignified and logical" [LADY] Leonard Nimoy, best known for his role as Mr. Spock in Star Trek on television and film, h...

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by Scott Monty

Interview: Author Lyndsay Faye on the Art of Pastichery and the Lost Sherlock Holmes Story

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"I knew by experience" [ENGR] </h4>
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One of the benefits of being associated with a literary group like the Baker Street Irregulars is that one has access to a wide variety of professionals. Or as Sherlock Holmes said, "A singular set of people, Watson." [LAST]<br />
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Following the <a href="http://www.ihearofsherlock.com/2015/02/conan-doyle-didnt-write-lost-sherlock.html" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">debate on the true authorship of the lost Sherlock Holmes story</a> found in Scotland (full coverage is being <a href="http://ihose.co/LostStory" target="_blank">tracked here</a>), we sat down with Lyndsay Faye, BSI ("Kitty Winter"). Lyndsay is an Edgar® Award-nominated author of the critically acclaimed <i><a href="http://amzn.to/1G0pJyS" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Dust and Shadow: an Account of the Ripper Killings by Dr. John H Watson</a></i>, as well as highly successful and lauded the Timothy Wilde series of books (<i>Seven For a Secret</i>, <i>Gods of Gotham</i>). <i>The Los Angeles Times</i> said that "she gets a critical component - Watson's voice - right" and Michael Connelly called her command of historical detail "remarkable."<br />
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In addition to the Baker Street Irregulars, Ms. Faye is a member of the <a href="http://www.ashsherlockian.org/" target="_blank">Adventuresses of Sherlock Holmes</a>, <a href="http://bakerstreetbabes.com/" target="_blank">the Baker Street Babes</a>, the Mystery Writers Association of America and Girls Write Now.<br />
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Lyndsay's next book, <i><a href="http://amzn.to/1wpmLLR" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">The Fatal Flame</a></i>, will be released on May 12. More at <a href="http://lyndsayfaye.com/">LyndsayFaye.com</a>.<br />
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<b>I Hear of Sherlock Everywhere: Why would anyone want to try to emulate the style of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle?</b></h4>
<b>Lyndsay Faye: </b>Two superb literary tricks partially account for his myriad imitators.  First, he employs "The Story You Are About To Hear Is True" throughout the canon; Sherlock Holmes, as published in <i>The Strand Magazine</i>, is well aware of the fact.  The world built in the sixty cases is self-reflective; Watson selects or discards cases for submission, Holmes snarks about Watson's style, and as Doyle's works become increasingly popular, the Holmes within the stories likewise becomes celebrated thanks to his biographer.  The world of our daily lives is perfectly paralleled in the canon; we can see them, and <i>they can see us seeing them</i>.  It's brilliant and lends itself to kind of the agenda-driven material found in the Selkirk piece.<br />
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The second trick Doyle used that drives fans to acts of frantic literary impersonation is that Watson left romantic, tantalizing gaps in his stories.  Why didn't he tell us about the Giant Rat of Sumatra, we wonder?  Did Sherlock Holmes spring fully formed from the head of Zeus, we (and Watson) wonder?  (Until we learn he has a brother named Mycroft and our minds are blown.)  The canon contains mysteries within mysteries, and these drive even hardened cynics to sit down and write things like, <i>Holmes and I were seated before the fire at our rooms in Baker Street when</i>...etc.<br />
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<b>IHOSE: Isn't it as simple as developing a worthy plot?</b></h4>
<b>LF: </b>No, not at all, though the Selkirk find doesn't have that either.  Doyle's style is so readable that people fail to notice how technically contradictory it can be.  It's straightforward in meaning, but full of Victorian flourishes; its details are subtly painted, but the subject is trained killer snakes.  Holmes is as likely to drawl, "No clue?" and then grunt from the sofa [REIG] as he is to wax on for paragraphs about complex deductions.  <br />
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Aside from this, writing observations that seem meaningless and later lead to dramatic deductions is extremely difficult.  Doyle himself was <i>trained</i> in this skill by Dr. Joseph Bell--the rest of we pale copies have to sweat and strain over logical puzzles.<br />
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<b>IHOSE: What are some of the nuances an inexperienced author might miss?</b></h4>
<b>LF: </b>There are about a kajillion, but they fall into general categories.<br />
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Historical research can be a bear trap-- you might know what a dog cart and a tantalus and a seven per cent solution are, but did you know bagged tea was invented in 1895?  (What a year!)  Conan Doyle didn't have to do research into what to call an underhousemaid or how to address an earl--he was living it.  These are contemporary accounts, not period set pieces.  Hell, he didn't even bother over finding out if snakes drank milk.  And if you got your historical information from films, pack up and go home--no gentleman would ever have worn a deerstalker to the opera, and I have <i><a href="http://amzn.to/1atGPIv" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Murder by Decree</a></i> to thank for those nightmares.<br />
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Category two would be humor.  The Sherlock Holmes canon is hilarious, and if you set out to write a very very serious and very very perfect pastiche as a very very serious devotee, you will fail, because they (spoiler alert) contain jokes.  Thus I put it to you, and thus I leave it: no humorless person will ever fully succeed at imitating Doyle.<br />
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Mostly importantly, and I cannot emphasize this enough, Holmes is often written as a caricature rather than a character, and this always breaks my heart.  In the canon, he may be larger than life, but he is a person, one with private hopes and lazy daydreams and a sharp temper and a kind spirit.  People seem to want to write him as only caustic, or only brooding, or even only drug-addled, when really he possessed elements of all these <i>in addition</i> to being something of a scrapper, a Nature poet, and a practical joker.  He cannot be a one-dimensional fellow in a deerstalker coldly hurling himself to the floor in search of a clue while crying, "My dear Watson!"  It hurts my eyeballs.<br />
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<b>IHOSE: What are some common "red flags?"</b></h4>
<b>LF:</b> Esteemed Sherlockian Otto Penzler once said, "...<i>noir</i> is not unlike <i>pornography</i>, in the sense that it is virtually impossible to define, but everyone claims to know it when they see it."  A really great pastiche is similarly elusive, but there are some common rookie errors.<br />
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If the relationship between Holmes and Watson is effortless - effortless bickering, silences, discussions, offenses, debates, sulks, smiles, quips, and quibbles - then it's a good pastiche.  If their dialogue is strained in any way, you're in immediate peril.  If you put them at odds in any sense other than trivial banter, you're toast.  Their characters mean absolutely everything to the series.<br />
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Language is of course extremely important.  It has to be Victorian, but never antiquated, and that's difficult.  Some of the sentences in the canon last two or three words, and others smoothly sail along for thirty or so.  Many people simply cannot hear the voice, and instead they borrow phrases from the canon and twist a word or two to suit them--this semi-poaching rarely goes unnoticed by the connoisseur.<br />
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Finally, leaning too heavily on any one aspect of the canon is fatal.  Some people write pastiches that are all foggy-London-haloed-streetlamps, others endless streams of wearying deductions; if you forget that plenty of cases took place outside of London proper or even (gasp!) in the summer, and that Holmes also reminded Watson to pack his tooth-brush [SPEC], you're done for.  Pastiches shouldn't read like a stream of rehashed cliches.  The story we are about to hear should be true--or at least sound it.<br />
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I am amused that media are now describing the Selkirk story as "fan fiction" — not "pastiche". <a href="http://t.co/HmkL1mMQKo">http://t.co/HmkL1mMQKo</a></div>
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— Chris Redmond (@darkgreendesk) <a href="https://twitter.com/darkgreendesk/status/570925098598838273">February 26, 2015</a></div>
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<b>IHOSE: Speaking of pastiche, what's your take on the difference between pastiche and fanfiction?</b></h4>
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<b>LF:</b> I think that the storytelling urge that produces "pastiche" and "fanfiction" are identical.  We want to read further.  We want to know them better.  Some have found it eccentric that a newly discovered pastiche is being called a fanfiction online.  Well, why not?  They're the same animal, save for matters of self-identification and commercial intent.<br />
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 A pastiche is a work "that imitates the work of another style, artist, or period."  Fanfiction is "fiction about characters or settings from an original work of fiction."  In what way do those descriptions differ precisely?  They simply don't, to my mind.  I always differentiate due to the commercial use of "pastiche" versus the more intimate community use of "fanfiction," but the real line of demarcation in my mind is people who insist on the fact they write "pastiches" and people who don't.  Not to mention "homage," thank you Anthony Horowitz...<br />
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<b>Previous coverage of this topic:</b></h4>
Conan Doyle Was Not the Author of the Lost Sherlock Holmes Story - <a href="http://ihose.co/ACD_not">ihose.co/ACD_not</a><br />
A Stylistic Analysis of the Lost Sherlock Holmes Story - <a href="http://ihose.co/ACDstyle">ihose.co/ACDstyle</a><br />
Lost Sherlock Holmes Story - Clearing up Authorship (Storify) - <a href="http://ihose.co/LostStory">ihose.co/LostStory</a><br />
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Image credit: copyright <a href="https://twitter.com/melindacaric">Melinda Caric</a><br />
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Interview: Author Lyndsay Faye on the Art of Pastichery and the Lost Sherlock Holmes Story

"I knew by experience" [ENGR] One of the benefits of being associated with a literary group like the Baker Street Irregulars...

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by Scott Monty

A Stylistic Analysis of the Lost Sherlock Holmes Story

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"His effort to conceal his own writing" [HOUN]</h4>
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Recently a discovery was made of <a href="http://ihose.co/LostStory" target="_blank">a ‘lost’ or ‘new’ Sherlock Holmes story</a>. Recovered from the attic of an 80 year-old Scotsman, it tells the tale of Holmes trying to deduce why Watson won’t take a trip with him, and where the doctor is going instead.<br />
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The 1336-word piece reads like it might be an opening scene at Baker Street. But it isn't especially well-written, and many people have opinions about whether or not it was actually written by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle himself. The most common criticism is the fact that it doesn't seem like his style. For those of us who are familiar with his writing on a deep level, recognizing his style is something of a hobby within a hobby.<br />
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By this point it will be unnecessary to recap the main points of the story of the story, but it <i>is</i> necessary to say that there are those who believe in the tale (titled <i>Sherlock Holmes: Discovering the Border Burghs, and, by Deduction, the Brig Bazaar</i> – a very atypical title as far as Sherlock Holmes stories go) and those who don't.<br />
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If you're just jumping in for the first time, you might be interested in reading <a href="http://www.ihearofsherlock.com/2015/02/conan-doyle-didnt-write-lost-sherlock.html" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">a previous analysis undertaken by Mattias Boström</a> on these pages.<br />
<br />
<h4>
"When you have eliminated the impossible..." [SIGN]</h4>
<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Occam%27s_razor" target="_blank">Occam’s Razor</a> tells us that the explanation with the fewest steps is the one most likely to be correct. Circumstantially, this could very well have been written by Conan Doyle. We know he visited the Border Burghs when this was written, and that he had direct dealings with the subject matter discussed in the story. But, there is one big strike against his authorship here: <b>nowhere in the publication (<i>The Book o' the Brig</i>) is he listed as the author</b>.<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
"Is there any other point to which you would wish to draw my attention?"<br />
"To the curious incident of the dog in the night-time."<br />
"The dog did nothing in the night-time."<br />
"That was the curious incident," remarked Sherlock Holmes.</blockquote>
While that omission might be a significant clue, it isn't itself necessarily conclusive. It occurred to me that there may be a way to make a determination by using something that would make Holmes himself proud – <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Forensic_linguistics" target="_blank">forensic linguistics</a>. By comparing this to other known writings by Conan Doyle, we have an opportunity to see if they match. If we look at phraseology, idiolect, and word usage can we get a final answer?<br />
<br />
I should mention here that I am not an expert on the English language. However, it does not take one to be able to compare. That is what I will do here. I will leave the really deeper investigation of gerunds, colligation, syntax, etc. to the professionals.<br />
<br />
I started this article with a fairly certain notion of what I would find, but I may have been too hasty. Regardless, let’s take a look at what was found.<br />
<br />
<h4>
"He told us of similar cases" [HOUN]</h4>
To begin with, does any part of this story correspond with other Doyle pieces?<br />
<br />
Compare the following:<br />
<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
"Perhaps not with your tongue, my dear Watson, but certainly with your eyebrows." ["The Adventure of the Resident Patient"]</blockquote>
<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
"By word, no; but by your action you have revealed the bent of your mind." ["The Brig Bazaar"]</blockquote>
[<b><i>Editor's note:</i></b> we'll be using <a href="http://ihose.co/ABREV" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">the Jay Finley Christ abbreviations</a> for the 60 Sherlock Holmes stories; the new piece will be referred to as BRIG.]<br />
<br />
In the above exchanges Holmes has stunned Watson with his deductions about the good doctor's private thoughts. This is something we see in several Holmes cases. The similarity of the above two passages seemingly reflects Doyle’s hand, but it would not be impossible for anyone else to do this. In fact, thousands have.<br />
<br />
When it comes to certain words or phrases, we find a fairly even mixture of meshing with known Doyle. The shortness of this piece makes it difficult to find many, but there are examples.<br />
<br />
The following is a list from BRIG that matches known Doyle writings:<br />
<br />
<ul>
<li>"up-to-date" – used in the novel <i>A Duet</i></li>
<li>"by hook or by crook" – "by hook or crook" [VALL]</li>
<li>"thought I" – "thought I to myself" [STUD]</li>
<li>"so far so good" – "So far so good." [CHAS]</li>
<li>"so-called" – used no fewer than six times but never in quotation marks</li>
<li>"stuck to me" – "you might have stuck to Mordecai Smith" [SIGN] and "he stuck to her as true as man could be" [COPP] and "artillerymen who had stuck to me." <i>The Mystery of Cloomber</i></li>
<li>"blue-pencilled” – used in Conan Doyle's autobiography <i>Memories and Adventures</i></li>
<li>"retailing” – used in the novelette <i>The Parasite</i> in the same context</li>
<li>"lilting” – used in the poem "Ragtime!"</li>
</ul>
<br />
<br />
Words or phrases for which we do not find a match:<br />
<br />
<ul>
<li>"romancists"</li>
<li>"attitude antagonistic"</li>
<li>"buttonhole" (never used by Doyle as a verb, only a noun)</li>
<li>"something in the air"</li>
<li>"stiff argument"</li>
<li>"loq.-" (this is used as a stage direction, or to inform a reader that someone is about to speak, in a play)</li>
</ul>
<br />
The line "I ordered a tin of tobacco, wrapped my cloak about me, and spent the night in thought," [BRIG] is a very non-Doyle/Holmes sentence. There are sites that have transcribed this line as "a <i>ton</i> of tobacco" in error. While Holmes may have used the occasional idiom, he never used this one.<br />
<br />
To compare his usage of a measurement, we have the following from HOUN:<br />
"My body has remained in this armchair, and has, I regret to observe, consumed in my absence two large pots of coffee and <i>an incredible amount</i> of tobacco." [Emphasis ours]<br />
<br />
"Wrapped my cloak about me" is a little odd, as well. The term cloak appears about a dozen times in the Canon, and Holmes used most of those, but never when referring to his dressing gown. We have to assume that’s what he meant since it’s very likely he didn’t wrap his "long gray travelling-cloak" around himself to keep warm.<br />
<br />
<h4>
"It is a hobby of mine to have an exact knowledge of London." [REDH]</h4>
The reference to Sloan Street as the home of Holmes ("The familiar house in Sloan Street met my bewildered gaze." [BRIG]) is one of the most telling discrepancies. There is no Sloan Street in London, but there is a Sloane Street about two miles from Baker Street. There is, however, a Sloan Street in <i>Edinburgh </i>– the birthplace of Doyle and a city that appears in the story.<br />
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjN8UfmAHKumAV1TVZSh1wuuxdiAydQAdAIZjK4SYFVppwg1nA4TWe32jQCOQHAfjGP2hinDhgmN1-hvvB6qMuoxxwChU39AImWwakMMvjIv0mTF_GSLHqcnXUjy2EUMMxnlgAbrpeZ4rkU/s1600/Sloan_Street,_Edinburgh_001.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="370" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjN8UfmAHKumAV1TVZSh1wuuxdiAydQAdAIZjK4SYFVppwg1nA4TWe32jQCOQHAfjGP2hinDhgmN1-hvvB6qMuoxxwChU39AImWwakMMvjIv0mTF_GSLHqcnXUjy2EUMMxnlgAbrpeZ4rkU/s1600/Sloan_Street,_Edinburgh_001.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Sloan Street in Edinburgh</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
<br />
The line "'Sherlock Holmes!' [You may] As well talk of interviewing the Man in the Moon" may have a deeper meaning than just a comparison of trying to locate and interview Holmes.<br />
<br />
In 1899 a play was produced in New York City by George Lederer. The play was titled "The Man in the Moon" and strangely featured both Doyle and Holmes as characters. It ran for 182 performances, and received decent reviews. While this is not a definitive connection, it <i>is</i> only a few years before BRIG appears.<br />
<br />
<h4>
"there was somethin' wrong; compasses, or map, or somethin'" [STUD]</h4>
The line "Do you mind a run down to Scotland?" seems out of place with Doyle's knowledge of the country. Why does Holmes ask Watson to go "down" to Scotland? The town in this story, Selkirk, is 370 miles <u>north</u> of London. Is this a slip-up on the part of the true author?<br />
<br />
Furthermore, as Holmes excuses himself from traveling, he notes that he is busy with an "inquiry into the 'Mysteries of the Secret Cabinet.'" Nowhere in the Canon does Sherlock Holmes give a literary title (and certainly not a capitalized one at that) of the cases he's working on.<br />
<br />
<h4>
"4. Knowledge of Politics. - Feeble." [STUD]</h4>
Finally, we hear that Watson is considering "another Parliamentary contest." Another? Is there evidence of him running before? Even with all of the inconsistencies we find in the Canon, I doubt that Sir Arthur Conan Doyle would have made this mistake. <br />
<br />
If Doyle wrote this as a fundraiser and used the name of his master detective (albeit with quotation marks around Holmes's name) then he was pretty sloppy with it. Could he have expected people to take this seriously? Did he think that his famous creation could appear in a story fraught with problems and inconsistencies and no one would care or notice? What were his reasons for such a poor job? And why doesn't his name appear on it if he is trying to help raise money for a good cause and good friends? The answer could be that he isn't the author. <br />
<br />
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" lang="en">
<div style="text-align: center;">
Read the opening frame of "Sherlock Holmes" story again. Clearly a spoof. <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/WeShallNotBeFooled?src=hash">#WeShallNotBeFooled</a></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
— Baker Street Journal (@BakerStJournal) <a href="https://twitter.com/BakerStJournal/status/568870200034119680">February 20, 2015</a></div>
</blockquote>
<script async="" charset="utf-8" src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js"></script>

<br />
<br />
The brevity of the story counters the necessity and ability to look for more details, and prevents any level of investigative depth that would assist in a definitive answer. There is evidence for and against Doyle's authorship, but my gut still tells me that this isn't his. However, the clues keep us swaying to and fro. Perhaps one day something will come to light that will settle the authorship question and the writer will be unmasked. Who that person is remains to be seen.<br />
<br />
<br />
[<b><i>Editor's note:</i></b> Vincent W. Wright has been a member of The Illustrious Clients of Indianapolis since 1997. He discovered his love for Holmes in the late 1980s when he was given tattered copies of <i>The Annotated Sherlock Holmes</i>. It was in those pages he found his true calling as a Sherlockian - studying the chronology of the Canon. Vincent runs a blog and <a href="https://www.facebook.com/pages/Historical-Sherlock/314567048570655">Facebook Page</a> called <a href="http://historicalsherlock.blogspot.com/">Historical Sherlock</a>, and is a member of four scion societies. Vincent had two pieces published in Sherlock Holmes in the Heartland, and was runner-up in the 2010 Baker Street Journal Essay Contest.This is his first contribution to <b>I Hear of Sherlock Everywhere</b>.]<br />
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<span style="font-size: x-small;">Photo credit: <a href="https://flic.kr/p/aPR13K" target="_blank">Elliott Brown (Flickr)</a></span><br />
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