[sherlock holmes] the best story in my opinion

Mycroft Holmes, by Sidney Paget, although the illustrations for this story were by Arthur Twidle

There’ve been many surveys of the top Sherlock Holmes stories over the years and I’ve a complicated comparative chart of surveys in a file, decades apart, which it would take too long to post. The one below is a fairly recent reader survey:

1. "The Speckled Band"
2. "The Red-Headed League"
3. "A Scandal in Bohemia"
4. "Silver Blaze"
5. "The Blue Carbuncle"
6. "The Musgrave Ritual"
7. "The Final Problem"
8. "The Empty House"
9. "The Dancing Men"
10. "The Six Napoleons"
11. "The Bruce-Partington Plans"
12. "The Man with the Twisted Lip"

Personally, I put the Bruce-Partington Plans at the top, not because it fulfils all these criteria necessarily:

1. 3 dimensional, memorable characters – real living, breathing people
2. clever, inventive situations
3. the thrill of the chase, the passion, the seriousness of the hunt
4. mystery – the Agatha Christie ‘whodunit’ method
5. watching a professional at work - seeing Holmes’s deductive method in action
6. reader’s feeling of immediacy, particularly at the beginning of stories
7. sense of ‘fullness’ and ‘richness’ in the text, particularly in the dialogue

… but because Holmes and Co’s dialogue is almost as I imagine myself reacting, e.g.

He paced restlessly about our sitting-room in a fever of suppressed energy, biting his nails, tapping the furniture, and chafing against inaction. "Nothing of interest in the paper, Watson?" he said.

I was aware that by anything of interest, Holmes meant anything of criminal interest.

Then comes the telegram that his brother is to visit so they brush up on the case:

"There has been an inquest," said I, "and a good many fresh facts have come out. Looked at more closely, I should certainly say that it was a curious case."

"Judging by its effect upon my brother, I should think it must be a most extraordinary one." He snuggled down in his armchair. "Now, Watson, let us have the facts."

Later, when Mycroft refuses to accept Sherlock’s puzzlement over the case:

What is there for us to do?"

"To act, Sherlock - to act!" cried Mycroft, springing to his feet. "All my instincts are against this explanation. Use your powers! Go to the scene of the crime! See the people concerned! Leave no stone unturned! In all your career you have never had so great a chance of serving your country."

"Well, well!" said Holmes, shrugging his shoulders. "Come, Watson! And you, Lestrade, could you favour us with your company for an hour or two?"

You can access the whole story here.