The Final Problem

Sherlock Holmes sneaked into Dr. Watson`s house by going through a garden wall. When Watson asked why he did it, Holmes responded that there were criminals with air guns ready to shoot him, and that he couldn’t enter from the door, because he would put his life in danger. Holmes asked Watson that if he had heard of professor Moriarty.  Holmes tells him that he is a criminal genius behind an extremely dangerous band. It is like some sort of intellectual equal to him.  No one has heard of him because he always hides in the shadows. He is the master of the most deadly criminals in London. Holmes also said that a criminal strain ran in his blood. Holmes went back to his house, and while he was upstairs, he heard footsteps in the stairs. He had his revolver ready. It was professor Moriarty. He came to say that he must stop investigating the criminals, because if he didn’t stop, he would get killed. Holmes refused. Moriarty left, and as soon as he left, an air gun bullet almost hits Holmes. He went to hide downstairs, and heard footsteps coming upstairs, and then he smelled smoke and heard the flickering flames.

 He left his house undetected through a window. He saw that his house was on fire. Holmes wrote a letter, and threw it under Watson's door. He was asking him if he wanted to come with him far away in a dangerous trip. When Watson read it, he went to the location Holmes said. While in the train, Watson sits in front of an old man, but he finds out it is Holmes.

He also said that the police arrested all criminals of the band in London, but one escaped, and that he was targeting him. They arrived to Switzerland and decide to take a walk and visit the Reichenbach Falls. Holmes saw a waterfall at a distance, until someone came and said that an English woman at the hotel was so ill, and she wanted and English doctor. Holmes gets suspicious and realized it is a trap, but Watson goes to see her, leaving Holmes by himself. When he realized he was deceived, he rushes to the falls, but finds no one, just Holmes's hat and a letter. When he reads it, he realized Holmes was with Moriarty. He realized that both had had a fight, and had fallen to their deaths in a mortal combat. He saw that the professor’s  gun was on the floor, and there were no signs of him, so he thought that Holmes took him with him down the waterfall.

This chapter was very intense. I didn’t expect that Holmes would die, but at the end apparently he did. I can understand why the queen of England at that time, wanted the writer to bring Sherlock Holmes to life again, as well as all of his readers, because he was a loved character that solved all the problems. It is hard to believe that professor Moriarty could make Holmes fall, but apparently that is what happened. I think Holmes wanted to sacrifice himself for a fair cause, which was to defeat this bad man, who had killed many innocent people.

The Dying Detective

Watson didn’t visit Holmes for a while, but when he comes to see him, Mrs. Hudson the maid, tells him that Holmes has been sick for 3 days, and hasn’t eaten anything. When he tried to touch him, Holmes aggressively yelled at him that he had something contagious. Holmes said to Watson that he got it in a ship while working on a case. Watson tried to grab a tobacco box to see if that had something to do with him. But Holmes yelled at him not to open it. Watson tells Holmes that he needed a doctor, because it was serious and his life was at risk, and Sherlock said Mr. Culverton Smith could help him and he gave him his address.

Watson found Smith and told him that Sherlock Holmes was very sick by a weird disease, without knowing that it had been planned. Culverton Smith said he was going to see him. When he came, Holmes demanded Watson to hide on the closet to hear the conversation. When Holmes was arguing with Mr. Smith, it is revealed that Dr. Smith killed his nephew, and had sent the same virus to Holmes in a box, because he was afraid that Holmes could find out the truth. He had not touched it, and since he knew the symptoms, he was only pretending to make him confess his crime in front of witnesses. Smith gets arrested, and Holmes reveals that he was fasting for more than 3 days to look really sick.

  

I would have liked that the story would be more adventurous, but I liked that at the end Holmes puts an end to Dr. Culverton Smith, because he was a bad person. He had killed his  nephew and I think he was doing some sort of human experimentation which is something really bad, because it could kill or change a person`s life forever. I liked that Sherlock Holmes faked being sick which is a brilliant idea to make him confess in front of witnesses in order to put an end to a mad doctor.

The Speckled Band

A woman by the name of Helen Stoner went to visit Sherlock Holmes, because she thinks that her stepfather plans to kill her. She said that some time ago her sister was found dead on her bed two weeks before her wedding, and that the police didn’t find any poison or blood on her. She also tells that her mother died in an accident, and she left her money to her husband, with the condition that he had to take care of the girls, and once they would get marry, they would receive their money.

When she left, Holmes and Watson were thinking on what could it be that killed her sister, while they were thinking, there was a knock on the door, and a man who revealed himself as the stepfather of Helen came angry to Holmes, and asked if Helen Stoner had visited him. Sherlock Holmes said that no one had come, but he still wasn’t convinced and he left. To this point, Helen`s stepfather could be suspicious, because he tailed her all the way to Holmes's house, so I think he has something to do with the death of Helen`s sister. Watson and Holmes went to her house, which was one of the oldest Saxons in England. Helen greeted them, and she told them to be careful, because there were exotic animals from India in the backyard.

Holmes went to investigate the yard, and found some people camping around, and there was a cheetah with them. At night, without the stepfather noticing, Holmes and Watson sneak to the house into Helen's sister room to find clues. They hear a whistle not far away, and suddenly a snake appears from a hole, and Holmes sends its back with a crowbar. They went to the room behind them, and saw Helen's stepfather dead with a snake on his neck. They go tell Helen, and she said it was an Indian snake. Holmes later realized that since it was an Indian snake, European doctors could not detect its poison. He also finds out that the stepdad had domesticated the snake and trained it to kill its victims, and perhaps he was killed by it, because the snake got scared when Holmes attacked it.

                                                                                   

I really enjoyed this short story. I always knew that Helen's stepfather was a suspect, and had something to do with it. He had been violent. He had been in jail. He had killed before. Besides, he had an economic motive, because he would have to give away the money that his wife had left him. When he follows Helen all the way to Holmes's house, he was very angry when he got there. To this point we can say that the stepfather was the one who killed Helen's sister with the Indian snake, and was planning to kill Helen as well, since she was about to get married. I like the story because it is mysterious and full of dangers. The author keeps the reader interested until the very end. 

A Scandal in Bohemia

One night Dr. Watson was returning from attending a patient, and Sherlock Holmes spotted him and called him to his house. As they were talking Holmes received a letter and read it out loud to Watson. The letter said that there was a gentleman who required his services upon a matter of deepest importance. They were both suspicious about it, because the letter didn’t have an address or name in it. The mysterious person comes, and reveals himself as the king of Bohemia. He said that there was a woman named Irene Adler who was trying to ruin him, because she wanted  to make public a photograph of them on the day of the king's engagement with the daughter of the king of Scandinavia, that was planned to be announced in three days. Since the king of Scandinavia was very strict, he would get in trouble, and his engagement would be at risk. 

He said money was not an issue, and he wanted the picture back no matter the price.
The king said that he had hired burglars and thieves, but they could`t never find it. Sherlock Holmes followed Irene Adler to a chapel, and saw that she was getting married with another man. Dr. Watson and Holmes planned something to retrieve the photo: Holmes dressed as an old man, and Watson as a criminal. Watson was “beating up” Holmes in front of Irene`s house, and she came out to help him. She placed him in a couch, and Holmes was acting like a dying man. When Adler went to bring him a cup of water, Holmes opened a window and gave Watson the signal to fire a smoke bomb. When Adler came to the room she quickly went to grab the photo, and Holmes saw where she was hiding it. Then she recognized him, then she knew it was acted. The next day Sherlock Holmes and Watson went to Irene Adler`s house, since Holmes already knew the location, but he didn’t find anything. The house keeper said that she went out of Bohemia with her new husband, and that she had left a letter for him. When they both read it, they found out how clever she was. She took the picture and promised that she would keep it as a security against any actions the king would take against her in the future, but she would not use it to harm him. 

I really liked this short story, because it`s is full of mysteries. At first I thought that Irene Adler was a bad person. I thought that she really wanted to blackmail the king to get an economic benefit, but I think she was trying to defend herself, or perhaps she even was in love with the king, and that is why she was acting the way she did it. I also think that the king had some sort of feelings for her, but he preferred the royal status of the new bride to be, who was the princess of Scandinavia. There is one part in which the king seems jealous that Irene Adler got married, and he said that she would have been an excellent queen, if she would have been part of the royalty. I like the way the author narrates the story, that one never knows what is going to happen. I thought that she was trying to ruin the king`s life, but she was really a victim of the king's affairs. He did not know how to treat women, and played with her feelings. Holmes at the end refuses an emerald ring that the king offered him to thank him for his job, but asked to keep a picture of her that the king had. I think this demonstrates that there are more important things than material things, and that there are values, like the ones she demonstrated that cannot be purchased.