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Welcome to the Tea, Tonic & Toxin book club and podcast! We’re reading and discussing the best mysteries and detective stories ever written.

The Thirty-Nine Steps by John Buchan, published in 1915, is one of the most popular espionage thrillers ever written. The action-packed story begins in May 1914. One day, our protagonist, Richard Hannay, finds a man named Franklin Scudder at the door of his London flat. Scudder is a freelance spy who has secret information about an assassination plot that could lead to a world war. Days later, Scudder is murdered in Hannay’s flat.

Fearing for his life, Hannay goes on the run. His goal: Stay one step ahead of both the police and the spies who will stop at nothing to find him.

Read: Buy it used, read it for free, or get it on Amazon. (Reading time: ~4 hours)

Reflect: Check out the conversation starters below.

We're excited to welcome Wendi Anderson as our guest. Wendi is a senior business analyst and an avid outdoor enthusiast. She loves mountain biking, hiking & paddleboarding. In fact, one of her favorite activities is jogging up Green Mountain, elevation 6,800 feet, which isjust steps outside her home in lovely Golden, Colorado. When she's not exploring the great outdoors, watching horror movies, or reading Stephen King novels, she's hanging at home with her husband, two kids and two dogs.

A Real Page Turner: Sudden surprises, rapid scene shifts, and changes of location, all elements of any number of spy thrillers like The Bourne Identity and detective on the run stories like Poker Face.

The Brink of War: The book starts in May 1914. In the book’s dedication, author John Buchan says he has “long cherished an affection for that elementary type of tale which Americans call the ‘dime novel,’ and which we know as the ‘shocker’ – the romance where the incidents defy the probabilities, and march just inside the borders of the possible.” He also notes, “these days … the wildest fictions are so much less improbable than the facts.”

Moral Code – It’s a story of good and evil where a brave man unselfishly risks his life to honor a dead man and a patriotic cause. Richard Hannay says, “I am an ordinary sort of fellow, not braver than other people, but I hate to see a good man downed, and that long knife would not be the end of Scudder if I could play the game in his place.”

Yearning for Adventure: Richard Hannay, a 37-year-old Scotsman raised in Rhodesia (Zimbabwe), returns to an England, where he quickly becomes bored. He envies shop-girls and clerks and policemen for having something to do.

Then Something Happens – The occupant of the flat upstairs, a Kentucky man named Franklin Scudder, tells of a well-financed anarchic conspiracy.

Escape from Boredom: Richard Hannay is happy to be on the run. “It was going to be a giddy hunt, and it was queer how the prospect comforted me. I had been slack so long that almost any chance of activity was welcome.” He feels lighthearted and childlike, relishing the intrigue. From that point on, it’s nonstop action – trains, stolen cars, bicycles, running on foot …

Hiding in Plain Sight – He hides out in a dovecote, as his enemies would assume he had made for open country and search for him on the moors.

The Milk of Human Kindness – When things look bleak, Richard Hannay finds sanctuary and unexpected allies. Goodhearted souls feed, clothe, and shelter him. Sir Henry, a liberal candidate, puts him in touch with his godfather. A roadman nurses him back to health over 10 days.

Judging the Person vs. the Story: Hannay “had made a practice of judging the man rather than the story.”

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Published in 1913, Trent’s Last Case is considered one of the first “whodunits” – stories in which new clues appear throughout, making it possible for readers to feel as if they’re solving the crime along with the detective. Also, this Philip Trent mystery includes a “less than perfect” sleuth – in contrast to Sherlock Holmes. Agatha Christie called it one of the three best mystery stories ever written.

Read: Buy it used, read it for free, or get it on Amazon. (Reading time: ~4 hours)

Reflect: Check out the conversation starters below.

Certainty of Achievement – “There are moments in life … when that which is within us … lets escape into consciousness some hint of a fortunate thing ordained. Who does not know what it is to feel at times a wave of unaccountable persuasion that it is about to go well with him [and] success is at hand … The general suddenly knows at dawn that the day will bring him victory; the man on the green suddenly knows that he will put down the long putt. As Trent mounted the stairway outside the library door he seemed to rise into certainty of achievement.” Ever feel certain of your own achievement — a gut sense that everything’s going your way?

Fear – The “only thing that held [Trent] back was fear of an unfamiliar task. To react against fear had become a fixed moral habit with him.” Can anyone identify? Carolyn sure can.

The Modern Woman – Cupples says, “I have observed a sort of imitative hardness out of the products of the higher education of women to-day which would carry them through anything.” However, he says Mabel is different – refined, reserved, and filled with “womanly mystery.” For his part, Trent “went through life full of a strange respect for certain feminine weakness and a very simple terror of certain feminine strength.” Bentley sure seems terrified of women …

Tea, Tonic, and Toxin is a book club and podcast for people who love mysteries, thrillers, introspection, and good conversation. Each month, your hosts, Sarah Harrison and Carolyn Daughters, will discuss a game-changing mystery or thriller from the 19th and 20th centuries. Together, we’ll see firsthand how the genre evolved.

Along the way, we’ll entertain ideas, prospects, theories, doubts, and grudges, along with the occasional guest. And we hope to entertain you, dear friend. We want you to experience the joys of reading some of the best mysteries and thrillers ever written.

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Published in 1913, Trent’s Last Case is considered one of the first “whodunits” – stories in which new clues appear throughout, making it possible for readers to feel as if they’re solving the crime along with the detective. Also, this Philip Trent mystery includes a “less than perfect” sleuth – in contrast to Sherlock Holmes. Agatha Christie called it one of the three best mystery stories ever written.

Read: Buy it used, read it for free, or get it on Amazon. (Reading time: ~4 hours)

Reflect: Check out the conversation starters below.

Here are some conversation starters and questions. Also, be sure to share your thoughts using the form below (just scroll down)!

A Stepping Stone for the Genre with (Too?) Much Praise:

• G. K. Chesterton called it “The finest detective story of modern times.”
• Agatha Christie: “One of the three best detective stories ever written.”
• Dorothy Sayers: “It is the one detective story of the present century which I am certain will go down to posterity as a classic. It is a masterpiece.”
• New York Times: “One of the few genuine classics of detective fiction.”

The Anti-Detective Detective – Unlike G. K. Chesterton, Bentley wasn’t a fan of detective fiction. In fact, he disliked the detective fiction of his day, which he considered formulaic and humorless. Bentley wanted to create a detective who felt like a real human being with emotions. He didn’t want to create a quirky, analytical, infallible detective like Sherlock Holmes.

In this Philip Trent mystery, we’re told Trent is a famous detective. He had a “patrimony large enough to relieve him of the perilous imputation of being a struggling man.” He’s a cultured, successful painter and man about town. He analyzes clues and assumes he has solved the case. He falls in love with one of the suspects. He finds out “grave things … about [Manderson’s] death, things not suspected by anyone else ….” At the end, he learns that he reached the wrong conclusion.

Rival Detectives – Trent and Inspector Murch, one of “the ablest detectives at Scotland Yard,” are both interested in “the game,” which involved “strivings for the credit of the press and of the police.”

Trent’s Pretension – Trent points to a sentence in a letter he’s writing and notes only two words of more than one syllable: “This letter is meant to impress … We must have long words.” Words such as “terminological inexactitude,” a phrase introduced by Winston Churchill used as a euphemism for a lie or a substantially correct but technically inaccurate statement. Trent also likes to toss quotes from his favorite poems into “casual” conversations. Examples:

• I am blown along a wandering wind, / And hollow, hollow, hollow all delight.” – Tennyson, “Idylls of the King”
• “from childhood’s hour, / I’ve seen my fondest hopes decay;” Thomas Moore, “Lalla Rookh”
• “the dun deer’s hide / On fleeter foot was never tied.” Sir Walter Scott, The Lady of the Lake
• “drain not to its dregs the urn / Of bitter prophecy” Shelley, “Hellas”

Love at First Sight Leads to … Melodrama – “The two things that had taken [Trent] utterly by surprise in the matter of his feeling towards Mabel Manderson were the insane suddenness of its uprising in full strength and its extravagant hopelessness.”

Casual Racism – The book includes racist ramblings about Native American peoples and even a song about African American people. These ramblings made the story very hard to read at time.

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The Innocence of Father Brown (1911) is G. K. Chesterton’s first collection of short stories featuring Father Brown, a nondescript Catholic priest who solves crimes using intuition and by tapping into spiritual and philosophic truths rather than scientific details. The stories are clever, thoughtful, and lovely.

Meet our first guest, Deb Donner. She's a bookaholic. Reading is her escape but it's also her inspiration and my therapy. Her current favorite genre is Memoir; She loves to hear the stories of other people. Everyone has a unique life story. Her story is how she survived and escaped a religious cult. Her mother joined when I was 12. She escaped when she was 19. She writes about that experience and finds it more healing than therapy.

She also enjoy crafting and her latest joy is slow stitching little bits of fabric together into various fabric stories.

social media is: 
@debdonner62, where she shares her crafty fun,
@letstalkcults, where she shares her story of being trapped in a cult.

How to Read It: Buy it on Amazon, buy a used copy, or read it for free, courtesy of Project Gutenberg.

Estimated Reading Time: 5 hours

Share your thoughts and check out the conversation starters below!

In what ways did the stories’ Christianity (Catholicism) enrich or complicate the stories? Where did your sympathies lie? Which tale hit home hardest for you, and why?

In the “The Invisible Man,” a woman admits she has felt the presence of a former suitor. Her confidant says, “if he were Satan himself, he is done, for now you have told somebody. One goes mad all alone.” In what ways do we tend to discount our intuition? Does one go mad all alone?

In “The Wrong Shape,” Father Brown says Mrs. Quinton is “over-driven. That’s the kind of woman who does her duty for twenty years, and then does something dreadful.” Do you know anyone who fits the description of Mrs. Quinton?

“The Eye of Apollo”: “A frigid fierceness (peculiar to the modern woman)” drove Pauline “to what she considered a harsher and higher existence.” She invested her wealth in her typewriting emporium and causes that advanced such work among women. What are your thoughts about Pauline? Have you ever resented someone for holding a door open for you (as she resents Flambeau)?

In the first few stories in The Innocence of Father Brown, Flambeau is a “good criminal” who commits bloodless crimes such as theft. He’s a tall, streetwise, outlaw hero who enjoys the “game” of crime. Under Father Brown’s influence, Flambeau reforms and becomes an amateur detective. In “The Wrong Shape,” Father Brown says to Flambeau, “You are my only friend in the world, and I want to talk to you. Or, perhaps, be silent with you.”

In “The Sign of the Broken Sword,” Father Brown asks Flambeau if he recalls whom Dante put in the last circle of ice. (Answer: Traitors who committed fraud against those with whom they shared special bonds of love and trust.) Flambeau “could almost fancy he was Dante, and [Father Brown was] Virgil leading him through a land of eternal sins.”

How do you feel about the good criminal and the road that “goes down and down”? How important is it to you to have friends with whom you can talk AND be silent? Has someone guided you through parts of your life? Have any Judas’ or Brutus’ in your life?

Tea, Tonic, and Toxin is a book club and podcast for people who love mysteries, thrillers, introspection, and good conversation. Each month, your hosts, Sarah Harrison and Carolyn Daughters, will discuss a game-changing mystery or thriller from the 19th and 20th centuries.

Support the show

https://www.instagram.com/teatonicandtoxin/
https://www.facebook.com/teatonicandtoxin
https://www.teatonicandtoxin.com

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The Innocence of Father Brown (1911) is G. K. Chesterton’s first collection of short stories featuring Father Brown, a nondescript Catholic priest who solves crimes using intuition and by tapping into spiritual and philosophic truths rather than scientific details. The stories are clever, thoughtful, and lovely.

Meet our first guest, Deb Donner. She's a bookaholic. Reading is her escape but it's also her inspiration and my therapy. Her current favorite genre is Memoir; She loves to hear the stories of other people. Everyone has a unique life story. Her story is how she survived and escaped a religious cult. Her mother joined when I was 12. She escaped when she was 19. She writes about that experience and finds it more healing than therapy.

She also enjoy crafting and her latest joy is slow stitching little bits of fabric together into various fabric stories.

social media is: 
@debdonner62, where she shares her crafty fun,
@letstalkcults, where she shares her story of being trapped in a cult.

How to Read It: Buy it on Amazon, buy a used copy, or read it for free, courtesy of Project Gutenberg.

Estimated Reading Time: 5 hours

Share your thoughts and check out the conversation starters below!

Here are some conversation starters and questions that got us thinking. We hope they’ll get you thinking, too! We invite you to be part of the conversation. You can share your thoughts using the form below!

The fantastic tales in The Innocence of Father Brown mix fantasy, humor, and horror and push the bounds of reality. Were you able to suspend disbelief? Did the stories seem contrived? Thoughtful? Charming?

Father Brown has brown hair. He’s featureless, inconspicuous, shabby, clumsy, self-effacing, and expressionless, his “eyes as empty as the North Sea.” In “The Blue Cross,” he’s very naïve. Does he evolve as a character in the stories? In what ways?

Father Brown has great spiritual intuition and the “kind of head that cannot help asking questions.” In “The Secret Garden,” he says, “Will God give me strength? Will my brain make the one jump and see all?” He observes details missed by others and is skilled in the art of deduction. He “put two and two together and made four million” (”The Queer Feet”). In what ways is he similar to Sherlock Holmes? In what ways is he different?

In The Innocence of Father Brown, Father Brown gets inside the criminal’s mind and empathizes with his evil motives. In “The Sign of the Broken Sword,” the world thinks Sir Arthur St. Clare was brave and heroic, but he was really a traitor who sent 800 men to their death to cover up a murder he had committed. Father Brown says, “I can’t prove it, but I can do more—I can see it.”

What surprised you most about Father Brown? Have you known people who seemed on the surface to be one thing and turned out to be something else altogether?

In “The Queer Feet,” the narrator says it is “unlikely that you will ever rise high enough in the social world to find ‘The Twelve True Fishermen’ or that you will ever sink low enough among slums and criminals to find Father Brown.” In “The Flying Stars,” Father Brown is asked what he would “call a man who wants to embrace the chimney-sweep?” Father Brown’s reply: “A saint.” Where do Father Brown’s (and Chesterton’s) sympathies lie in The Innocence of Father Brown?

In what ways did the stories’ Christianity (Catholicism) enrich or complicate the stories? Where did your sympathies lie? Which tale hit home hardest for you, and why?

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The Innocence of Father Brown (1911)

G. K. Chesterton’s first collection of short stories featuring a Catholic priest who solves crimes by tapping into spiritual and philosophic truths.

Trent’s Last Case (1913)

In E. C. Bentley’s “whodunit,” new clues appear throughout the story, making readers feel as if they’re solving the crime along with Trent.

The Thirty-Nine Steps (1915)

In John Buchan’s prototype of the “man-on-the-run” adventure, a spy is murdered in Richard Hannay’s flat. Can Hannay evade his pursuers?

The Mysterious Affair at Styles (1920)

Agatha Christie’s incredible whodunit introduces brilliant Belgian detective Hercule Poirot, Arthur Hastings, and Inspector Japp.

Whose Body? (1923)

Dorothy Sayers introduces Lord Peter Wimsey, the father of the “gentleman sleuth” who will appear in British novels for decades to come.

The Murder of Roger Ackroyd (1926)

One of Agatha Christie’s most controversial novels due to an unexpected twist at the end. Christie considered it her masterpiece.

Red Harvest (1929)

Dashiell Hammett’s portrayal of the Continental Op as a “hard-boiled” detective became a prototype for many detective stories to come.

The Maltese Falcon (1930)

Dashiell Hammett introduces Sam Spade. The third-person-objective narrative includes no insights into characters’ thoughts and feelings.

Malice Aforethought (1931)

Frances Iles’ novel is an early example of the “inverted detective story,” in which the murder AND murderer are revealed at the beginning.

The Case of the Velvet Claws (1933)

We meet criminal defense lawyer and detective Perry Mason. Earle Stanley Gardner went on to write 150 books that sold 300 million copies.

Murder on the Orient Express (1934)

Agatha Christie’s  books have sold more than two billion copies. This page-turner starring Hercule Poirot helps to explain why.

The Nine Tailors (1934)

The murder method in Dorothy Sayers’ marvelous story was unique. The idea came from a sixpenny pamphlet about bell-ringing.

ALL THE PODCAST EPISODES

We’re reading and discussing many of the best mysteries, thrillers, and detective stories ever written. Join us on this marvelous journey!

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“The Murders in the Rue Morgue” (1841)

Edgar Allan Poe is the mystery master. Set in Paris, this gruesome tale introduces amateur detective Auguste Dupin and his trusty sidekick.

“The Purloined Letter” (1844)

Edgar Allan Poe called it “perhaps the best of my tales of ratiocination.” It’s a great mystery — minus the Gothic horror of “Rue Morgue.”

Bleak House (1853)

In Charles Dickens’ masterpiece, Inspector Bucket, the first important police detective in English literature, investigates a murder.

The Woman in White (1860)

Wilkie Collins’ book has it all — switched identities, false imprisonment, foreign agents, blackmail, conspiracies, and shocking secrets.

The Notting Hill Mystery (1862-3)

A woman dies after drinking acid. Was it an accident? The intrigue includes a kidnapping, a sinister mesmerist, and many dastardly crimes.

The Moonstone (1868)

Wilkie Collins’ amazing mystery includes red herrings, plot twists, a small circle of suspects, and a stolen Indian gem with a bloody past.

The Mystery of a Hansom Cab (1886)

Set in Melbourne, Fergus Hume’s literary sensation puts a spotlight on social class as a crime is committed by an unknown assassin.

A Study in Scarlet (1887)

Arthur Conan Doyle introduces us to Sherlock Holmes, the world’s most famous “consulting detective,” and Watson, his sidekick.

The Big Bow Mystery (1892)

In Israel Zangwill’s locked-room mystery, two detectives race to solve a murder and the startling solution is revealed at the very end.

The Hound of the Baskervilles (1902)

In Arthur Conan Doyle’s Gothic-inspired spine-tingler, the great Sherlock Holmes must discover the truth about a deadly spectral hound.

Lady Molly of Scotland Yard (1910)

Baroness Orczy’s short story collection stars one of the first female detectives in fiction. Lady Molly solves crimes using feminine intuition.

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Tea, Tonic, and Toxin is a book club and podcast for anyone who loves mysteries and detective stories. We’re making our way through the 19th-century stories that helped the genre evolve. Next up: Baroness Orczy’s 1910 collection of short stories, Lady Molly of Scotland Yard, about a lady detective — one of the first in fiction! 

Baroness Orczy, author of The Scarlet Pimpernel, wrote this collection of short stories about Molly Robertson-Kirk. Lady Molly  of Scotland Yard uses her feminine intuition to solve crimes.

How to Read It: Buy it on Amazon or find a copy at a used bookstore.

Estimated Reading Time: 4 hours. Share your thoughts and check out the questions below!

Professional career of a lady detective – one of the first female detectives – Lady Molly is respected by Scotland Yard – she’s often brought in if there’s a woman in the case – her cases are famous.

Expository storytelling – Mary narrates, much like Watson in the Sherlock Holmes stories.

Feminine intuition – sixth sense – Molly is the “most wonderful psychologist of her time” – this lady detective is smarter, bolder, savvier than men (according to Mary)  – the “extraordinary faculty which she possesses of divining her fellow-creatures’ motives and intentions.”

Close to the vest – Molly often keeps Mary in the dark – Molly likes the big reveal – Mary speculates at times, and at times Molly toys with Mary (much in the way Sherlock Holmes toys with Watson).

Masquerade – Molly and Mary disguise themselves to obtain information – they’re bold, daring risk-takers, and they’re both quite clever.

Mary’s obsession with Molly – Mary is the smartest, sweetest, most beautiful, most ultra-feminine woman in the world – “I, of course, was her slave” – “dearer than any child could be to its mother” – “my business was to obey” – “I have carried obedience to the level of a fine art.”

Mary, assistant extraordinaire (though their friendship seems uneven).

Station and rank in life (social class) – behaviors, proprietary/impropriety of various connections, legitimacy, good breeding; who should/shouldn’t make it into the will, the [fill in the blank] “usual pattern” common to her class/kind – “Miss—er—Lulu Fay” who bore the stamp of the profession.

Plot holes – By the third story in the collection, Mary has “severed official connection with the Yard” and is working as Lady Mary’s private secretary. In the last two stories, we go back in time, before Lady Mary joined Scotland Yard, and find that Mary was Lady Molly’s maid (?).

Secret marriage – Molly married Captain Hubert, who’s accused of murdering his grandfather’s solicitor and is serving 20 years in prison; Philip Baddock will let him escape to Buenos Aires, as he wants to marry her – isn’t he her half-brother (they have the same mother, Mlle. Desty)?

Career closure – Happy once again, Molly gives up her connection with the police. Goodbye to the lady detective we have come to know and love. (How we wished for a different ending!)

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Tea, Tonic, and Toxin is a book club and podcast for anyone who loves mysteries and detective stories. We’re making our way through the 19th-century stories that helped the genre evolve. Next up: Arthur Conan Doyle’s 1902 novel, The Hound of the Baskervilles.

This turn-of-the-century, Gothic-inspired spine-tingler includes a spectral hound and a decidedly hands-off Sherlock Holmes. The Hound of the Baskervilles is considered by many to be Arthur Conan Doyle’s best — and one of the most gripping and suspenseful murder mysteries ever written.

How to Read It: Buy it on Amazon, find a copy at a used bookstore, or read it for free (courtesy of Project Gutenberg).

Estimated Reading Time: 4 hours. Share your thoughts and check out the questions below!

Brain Attic: Holmes says, “Intense mental concentration has a curious way of blotting out what has passed. The barrister who … is able to argue with an expert upon his own subject finds that a week or two of the courts will drive it all out of his head once more. So each of my cases displaces the last.”

Lies and Deceit: Even though The Hound of the Baskervilles emphasizes the importance of truth and justice, almost everyone lies in the book. The Barrymores lie about Selden, the Stapletons lie about their relationship (and about most everything else), Watson lies to Mr. Frankland, and Holmes lies to Watson. When is deceit justified?

Aiding and Abetting: Barrymore says Watson shouldn’t have hunted the murderer, Selden. Henry says they might have kept quiet if Barrymore had told the secret of his own free will. Barrymore says Selden is heading to South America and turning him in would only get the Barrymores in trouble. Watson says Selden’s departure would “relieve the tax-payer of a burden.” Watson even pities Selden on the rainy moors, noting, “Whatever his crimes, he has suffered something to atone for them.” Keep in mind that Watson remembers Selden’s case well “on account of the peculiar ferocity of the crime and the wanton brutality.” So many sketchy rationalizations …

The Ties That Bind: Mrs. Barrymore’s brother was a violent murderer, but she grieves his death, for to her “he always remained the little wilful boy of her own girlhood, the child who had clung to her hand.” Watson writes, “Evil indeed is the man who has not one woman to mourn him.” Selden has Mrs. Barrymore to mourn him. Stapleton has no one. Did you see Stapleton as more evil than Selden? How far would you go to protect one you love?

Hell Hath No Fury Like a Woman Scorned: Does Stapleton’s poor treatment of Beryl and Laura Lyons relieve either woman of responsibility in helping him? Are they accessories to murder?

Supernatural Horror: In the intro to The Big Bow Mystery, Israel Zangwill said mysteries should have a “pervasive atmosphere of horror and awe such as Poe manages to create.” How would you describe the atmosphere in Baskervilles? At one point, Mortimer says, “There is a realm in which the most acute and most experienced of detectives is helpless.” What if Holmes had found no rational explanation for the events on the moor? How shocked would you have been if the story included an actual supernatural hound?

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Tea, Tonic, and Toxin is a book club and podcast for anyone who loves mysteries and detective stories. We’re making our way through the 19th-century stories that helped the genre evolve. Next up: Arthur Conan Doyle’s 1902 novel, The Hound of the Baskervilles.

This turn-of-the-century, Gothic-inspired spine-tingler includes a spectral hound and a decidedly hands-off Sherlock Holmes. The Hound of the Baskervilles is considered by many to be Arthur Conan Doyle’s best — and one of the most gripping and suspenseful murder mysteries ever written.

How to Read It: Buy it on Amazon, find a copy at a used bookstore, or read it for free (courtesy of Project Gutenberg).

Estimated Reading Time: 4 hours. Share your thoughts and check out the questions below!

Scientific Method: Conan Doyle uses Mortimer’s walking stick to introduce the reader to Sherlock Holmes (much in the same way that Edgar Allan Poe introduces Dupin in “The Murders in the Rue Morgue”). Holmes, in turn, uses the walking stick to test Watson’s deductive skills. How do you feel about Holmes’ scientific method of deduction?

A Complex Friendship: In that first scene, Holmes tells Watson, “It may be that you are not yourself luminous, but you are a conductor of light. Some people without possessing genius have a remarkable power of stimulating it.” Holmes expresses his appreciation for his friend in a condescending way. However, Watson seems content being Holmes’s muse, noting, “his words gave me keen pleasure.” Why is Watson flattered by Holmes’s rudeness? Is Holmes’s hubris excusable?

Setting: Let’s talk London vs. Dartmoor. The Grimpen Mire is unstable ground. It seems to represent the idea that Dartmoor is stuck in the past. There’s poetic justice to the fact that Stapleton eventually gets dragged down into it.

All the Spies: A man spies on Sir Henry in London, Barrymore keeps watch for Selden, Holmes spies on Stapleton, Franklin peers out his telescope, Watson and Henry spy on Barrymore, and Cartwright spies on Watson.

Communication: “One of Sherlock Holmes’s defects—if, indeed, one may call it a defect—was that he was exceedingly loath to communicate his full plans to any other person until the instant of their fulfilment. Partly it came no doubt from his own masterful nature, which loved to dominate and surprise ….” What do you think? Is this communication style a “defect”?

Brain Attic: Holmes says, “Intense mental concentration has a curious way of blotting out what has passed. The barrister who … is able to argue with an expert upon his own subject finds that a week or two of the courts will drive it all out of his head once more. So each of my cases displaces the last.”

Lies and Deceit: Even though The Hound of the Baskervilles emphasizes the importance of truth and justice, almost everyone lies in the book. The Barrymores lie about Selden, the Stapletons lie about their relationship (and about most everything else), Watson lies to Mr. Frankland, and Holmes lies to Watson. When is deceit justified?

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