Murder and Mystery Stories
...o read on and discover what makes this story so special. “The Speckled Band” certainly contains all of the ingredients for success: a nasty, wicked villain in Dr Grimesby Roylott, who was once very rich; a damsel in distress to please Dr Watson; and a dark, clever murder mystery to entice Sherlock Holmes. Dr Roylott, an old doctor who was arrested for murder, again kills but this time kills his stepdaughter, Julia, so he does not have to give up some of his money. Roylott is cruel, a bully and is brutal. Helen Stoner, stepdaughter of Dr Roylott, comes to Sherlock Holmes in absolute terror for her life. She had announced her engagement and feared that she will suffer the same fate as her sister Julia, who died in her arms two years before on the eve of her wedding. Julia’s last words were: "Oh, my God! Helen! It was the band! The Speckled Band!" Sherlock Holmes naturally takes the case, spurred on by the threats of Roylott. This included his bending of an iron poker… “into a curve with his huge brown hands." Holmes however, coolly bent the iron back to its original shape, and responded by saying: “He seems a very amiable person,” said Holmes, laughing. This clearly shows the reader what a laid back and cool character Holmes really is. He is slightly arrogant and cocky, but this does not let him down. These characteristics of Holmes make him one of the best as this is what every reader likes in a good guy. Travelling to Stoke Moran, Sherlock Holmes and Dr Watson set up a vigil in Helen’s room, and late in the night uncover the cause of Julia’s death. The story ends with Dr Roylott getting killed, by the same technique that he used against his step daughter. Sherlock Holmes then solves the murder. The story itself is mainly a “how did it” story as we know the murderer, but we don’t quite know how they did it. This makes this story very interesting to the end. The following story that I read was a very short, sad and clever tale. I could not help myself but read on. The story is written by Muriel Mell and is called “Bird Talk”. “Bird Talk” is based around two characters, Miriam and her father. Miriam is a warm and gentle lady who is plagued with family issues. Her husband John had died, and so too her mother. A few years after her mother’s death, her father had a stroke and was left unconscious. The ward sister explained that they didn’t expect him to regain his consciousness and that he would die. However, Miriam's father did regain his consciousness but was left paralysed down his right side. Another side effect was that he could not speak; all that he could do was grunt. Miriam vowed to look after her sick father and did so for months on end. They both lived in Miriam's house and she decided to sell her fathers house as he wasn’t getting any better. The only thing that they kept from the house was her father’s budgengar and its cage. She thought that the bird would get her father talking again as before the stroke he had spent many hours sitting down in the garden chatting along with the bird. After months of tireless effort it came to a point when Miriam was sick and tired of looking after her poor father. She wished that he would just die. The bird was not talking and more disappointingly, neither was her father. “How the sight and smell of him disgusted her” As you can see from this quote from the tale, Miriam was fed up, she could not cope anymore. She wanted to get away from the drudgery of her life. It then came to a point when she decided to murder him. She suffocated him with his pillow; she put his head flat down into the pillow and left him and chanted the words: “Die damn you die” Her father couldn’t move his head due to his paralysis and then when she knew he was dead she immediately phoned her fathers doctor. When the doctor arrived she hoped he would not be suspicious of her evil deeds. Luckily he wasn’t and he started to write out the death certificate. It wasn’t until the bird which had been silent for the previous months, repeated the words of Miriam. “ ‘Die damn you die,’ it said loudly and clearly in unmistakeable imitation of Miriam” The murderer in this story is obviously Miriam as she suffocated her father in his pillows. She didn’t though have a plan to kill her father, the...