Speckled Band

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Consider “The Speckled Band” as an example of the murder mystery genre. Comment on the principal differences in “Silver Blaze”, and say which of the two stories you most admire.

   “The Speckled Band” is a prime example of a Sherlock Holmes murder mystery, narrated by John Watson; Mr Holmes’ intimate friend. The sleuth was an ingenious creation by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle in the late 1800’s.

   A typical murder mystery has several essential ingredients and other additives to enhance the story. There is usually a particularly gruesome or unique murder at a crime scene packed with clues, some of which are red herrings. These false clues help to make it more interesting for the reader, who also attempts to solve the puzzle.

   The plot must be developed carefully, entwining all of the features necessary for a murder mystery into one. The background in “The Speckled Band” is exotic, bizarre and seems quite unrealistic. It consists of one murder making the plot quite simple. “Silver Blaze”, another of Conan Doyle’s murder mysteries, has a more realistic background, making it more credible as a murder mystery. It has greater verisimilitude; one example is how the scene is set at the stables. The scene is shown with nothing out of the ordinary “the horses had been exercised and watered as usual”. “Silver Blaze” has a more intense mystery factor as it has two crimes connected but both different.

   The setting greatly controls the levels of tension, the atmosphere and the pace of the plot. This forms a major component in a murder mystery. In many murder mysteries the crime can occur anywhere but in “The Speckled Band” the murder could only take place in one particular room. Similarly in “Silver Blaze”, if the setting were different then the outcome would have changed. This type of murder is typical of the “Jonathon Creek” series.

   In “The Speckled Band” the red herring of the possible involvement of the gypsies is extremely weak and underlines the villains negative qualities rather than distracting the reader from the truth. However, in “Silver Blaze” there is a strong red herring. Fitzroy Simpson had a motive, opportunity and hard evidence against him. The evidence against him consisted of; the suspicion of “poisoning the stable boy”, “he was undoubtedly out in the storm”, “he was armed with a heavy stock, and his cravat was found in the dead man’s hand”. All of this evidence points towards Simpson as the culprit of the disappearance of “Silver Blaze”, a champion racehorse, and the murder of its trainer. This formed a large distraction from the facts for the reader and increased the drama of the detection and the denoument.

  The key characters in “The Speckled Band” are shown in a fairly complex fashion. It takes quite a long time in the story for most readers to understand the characters. This could make the story more interesting but I think it makes it unnecessarily complicated. On the other hand in “Silver Blaze” the characters are presented more simply. For example, when John Straker is first mentioned we are immediately informed of the key features of his role “The trainer, John Straker, is a retired jockey” “John Straker, who is a married man, lived in a small villa about two hundred yards from the stables. He has no children, keeps one maid-servant, and is comfortably off.” Having straightforward information about the characters makes the relationships and plot much easier to understand.

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   In Victorian novels the culprit is often a suspicious character or someone who appears as evil. In modern stories the culprit can be anyone. In “the Speckled Band” the culprit, Dr Grimsby Roylott, is obviously the villain. Roylott is an archetypal villain. From early on in the story the reader suspects that he is responsible for the murder of Julia Stoner.

   Suspicion of Dr Roylott is built up by examining his behaviour and this is instrumental in the creation of mistrust in Roylott. He is aggressive “I am a dangerous man to fall foul of!” has a ...

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