The crime put in front of Holmes seems very “mysterious”. A woman’s sister has died a horrible death, from a seemingly unexplainable cause, although there are some clues. The woman herself is now experiencing the same premonitions such as the whistle very late at night and she thinks she may have an “impending misfortune.” This increases the urgency to solve the case and the mystery is made difficult to explain because it is a ‘locked room’ mystery. It seems that there is no way for the would be assailant to kill the woman in her bedroom. This engages the reader’s imagination to work out a solution which the reader will usually enjoy. The case offered to Poirot is not as sinister but just as difficult to solve. A man has been murdered in his room. The murdered man was stabbed twelve times but all the blows were inflicted with different strengths of blow. Some blows were delivered left-handed others right-handed. All initial theories seem impossible. It is also a “locked room” mystery but there appear to be more clues such as the dented watch, the handkerchief, the match and the pipe cleaner. There appears to be too many clues. This is what makes the case hard to solve. I think that the sheer impossibility and abruptness of Holmes’s case gives it the edge, because it encourages the reader’s imagination more. I think that initially Holmes’s case also offers more of a challenge, as there are fewer clues.
One of the things that the mysteries have in common as the stories progress is the false clues or ‘red herrings’ offered, attempting to confuse the reader and lead them off on a false trail to make the solution more exciting and unexpected. The stories use the false clues in contrasting ways. In The Speckled Band, the gypsies who inhabit Dr. Roylott’s land are offered as a possible solution to the case, as are the wild Indian animals that roam his gardens. There is, however, no evidence to suspect their involvement, and so Holmes discounts them as a possibility very early on when he visits the Roylott residence. Helen says that Dr. Roylott made an “excuse to move me from my room” which heightens Holmes’ suspicions. There are a lot of false clues and suspects in Murder on the Orient Express. At the start this is interesting but as the plot progresses and every clue turns out to be false the story becomes a bit uninteresting. You just cannot work out who did it because everything seems impossible. Even Poirot says “every fresh piece of knowledge that came to light made the solution a whole lot more difficult.” Of the two sets of ‘red herrings’, I believe that both keep the reader baffled enough to be unable to work out the solution. In The Speckled Band few alternatives are offered so the reader never formulates their own theories and in Murder on the Orient Express the reader is given lots of alternative solutions so the reader is always changing their opinion. The Murder on the Orient Express alternative solutions are better because they make the reader think.
The solutions themselves are as contrasting as the number of false clues in each story. The solution to the Speckled Band seems unsatisfactory, as the reader will feel that it was impossible to work out the correct solution, leaving them feeling cheated. The reader will feel that not enough clues were provided during the story for them to solve the case themselves. If the reader had worked out that Dr. Roylott had sent a snake through a connecting ventilation shaft, down the fake bell pull onto the fixed bed, to bite his victim would be quite extraordinary. My opinion is that as this is a short story, Conan Doyle would not have felt he needed to incorporate lots of clues into the story before the solution, therefore if the book was longer, it would have more scope for clues to be introduced and be more satisfactory. For someone to have worked the solution to “Speckled Band” would be quite extraordinary. The same can be said about Murder on the Orient Express to a certain extent, as it is also difficult for the reader to solve. No one would think that everyone on the train, including the conductor, was in on the crime. That explains why the facts did not fit together because everyone was lying. Also the background knowledge connected to the Armstrong kidnapping case in the story was not known. The only clue leading to solving the case was the fragment of a burnt letter with the name “Armstrong” in it. However, you feel much more satisfied with the solution because it is very clever and fits into the facts and you can see how the crime was committed, every person stabbed the victim once. With The Speckled Band’s detached and improbable solution of “curious coincidence”, I believe that Murder on The Orient Express has a much better solution. This is because you feel satisfied not cheated.
As well as writing a good detective story with an interesting plot, the author needs to write a story that involves the reader, if it is to retain the reader’s interest throughout the book. This is one of the most important elements of a good detective novel and in fact any novel. In The Speckled Band, the urgency for a solution can be felt from the start when Doyle begins describing the woman’s “state of pitiable agitation.” It seems imperative that Holmes and Dr. Watson solve the case quickly, as it could cost Helen her life. The suspense is raised when Dr. Roylott visits Holmes’ apartment and threatens him, this, according to Holmes, “adds zest to the investigation”. The suspense is carried right to the end where it seems that they save Helen with no time to spare. The word use is aimed to heighten the suspense with statements like “too serious for any hesitation”, and there is a “distinct element of danger” throughout the story and the descriptions include phrases like “dreadful rigid stare”, “nervous tension” and “dark and sinister.” Conan Doyle holds a high level of suspense and as a result at some points it is impossible to put the book down. Murder on the Orient Express uses the time aspect to create suspense but there is no immediate danger to anyone. Poriot says that he has ”known for some time” who committed the crime, however, the reader is racking their brains trying to work out who did it. This raises the suspense. In the Speckled Band the sentences themselves tend to be very long with lots of commas and other punctuation, not full stops. This is not a problem when reading to yourself, but when reading aloud it can lower the suspense dramatically and the result is the story sounding uninteresting. The cause of this long-windedness seems to originate from Doyle’s Victorian Society. The people’s lifestyles were different to our hectic lifestyles of the present, and they were far more relaxed and laid back, and Doyle’s writing was a product of his period. The less scientific society also accounts for the absence of a medical examination on Helen’s sister, at which bite marks from the snake may have been discovered or poison found in the blood. I think The Speckled Band is interesting because the level of suspense is higher.
Overall, my judgement of the two stories is quite divided, as each story had its successes and failures in my opinion. If I had to make a decision on which is the better detective story, The Speckled Band’s briefness and lack of a deep plot would influence me. I would therefore choose Murder on the Orient Express as it has all the elements of a good detective novel an interesting and able detective, a mystery that seems difficult to explain, false clues and a satisfying solution. I think my opinion would have been far different if the Speckled Band was longer and had more detail and a better solution, because I think Conan Doyle’s writing style is superior to that of Agatha Christie because he captures the suspense better. However, both authors have gone down in history as two of the greatest crime writers ever. Both detectives have become household names, as has Watson, because of the author’s abilities to deliver stories that excite, interest and amaze us. However, Doyle has made his mark in history as one of the best detective authors ever and in fact one of the classic authors and his work will remain a textbook example of detective fiction.