SHERLOCK HOLMES SHORT STORY COLLECTION 1 AudioCD

"The Adventure of the Speckled Band" is one of the 56 short Sherlock Holmes stories written by Scottish author Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. It is the eighth of the twelve stories collected in The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes. The story was first published in Strand Magazine in February 1892, with illustrations by Sidney Paget. It was published under the different title "The Spotted Band" in New York World in August 1905. Doyle later revealed that he thought this was his best Holmes story.

Doyle wrote and produced a play based on the story. It premiered at the Adelphi Theatre, London on 4 June 1910, with H. A. Saintsbury as Sherlock Holmes and Lyn Harding as Dr. Grimesby Roylott. The play, originally called The Stonor Case, differs from the story in several details, such as the names of some of the characters.

Plot summary

A young woman named Helen Stoner consults the detective Sherlock Holmes about her ill-tempered and immensely strong stepfather, Dr. Grimesby Roylott. He has required her to move into a particular room of his heavily mortgaged ancestral home, Stoke Moran. The room has some very odd features, such as a bed bolted to the floor. It is also the room that Stoner's twin sister, Julia, had slept in when she died under suspicious circumstances. Julia had been engaged to be married and had she lived would have received an annual 250 GBP annuity from her late mother's income. Now Helen is engaged to be married.

A number of other details about the place are mysterious and disturbing. A low whistling sound is heard late at night, as well as a metallic clank. There is a strange bell cord over the bed, and it does not seem to work any bell. There are also Julia's dying words about a "speckled band." Stoner surmises that Julia might have been referring to the Gypsies whom Dr. Roylott permits to live on the grounds. A cheetah and a baboon also have the run of the property. Helen feels reluctant to sleep in the room.