"The Dying Detective" by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle and "An Invitation to Murder" by Josh Pachter are mystery stories in which numerous elements can be compared and contrasted. Firstly, both stories include examples of situational irony. In "The Dying Detective", it is expected that Sherlock Holmes is ill, in need of a cure; In contrast, he was not actually dying. The characters in "An Invitation to Murder" expect Mrs. Abbott to physically kill her husband, yet he dies because he needed medication to support his condition. Another commonality was that the mysteries in the two stories were both pre-meditated plans. Eleanor Abbott had planned for her Mr. Abbott to pass away between 10-11 PM, on that day, by not providing his medicine. Sherlock Holmes …show more content…
Culverton Smith had planned to poison Sherlock with the prick of a poisonous spring. Pointedly, Mrs. Abbott intended for Mr. Abbott to die, however her actions, if let be, would have healed him. In other words, Culverton Smith was trying to kill Holmes, whereas Eleanor Abbott was technically going to heal her husband. The policemen in "Invitation to Murder" could not decipher the mystery without Eleanor Abbott 's help; However, in "The Dying Detective", Sherlock Holmes knew the truth about Culverton Smith all along, without any help. Lastly, "Invitation to Murder " was a locked-room mystery, in which a mystery occurs in a room that seems to have no way for the criminal to commit the crime. Contrastingly, "The Dying Detective" was simply a foul-play mystery, where there are red herrings and false clues to lead the reader away from the true solution, which was that Sherlock Holmes was not actually sick. In summation, both texts had coinciding and contrasting points. Similarly, they both included situational irony, premeditated plans, and false assumptions. The differences were in the details, when the detectives had contrasting attitudes, the characters ' actions were not the same, and the type of mystery slightly