Speckled Band Suspense

In life, everyone must be ready in even the most suspenseful moments because you never know when something might just - strike! Characters in “The Adventure of the Speckled Band” must keep this in mind during their investigations. A woman named Helen Stoner went to Sherlock Holmes and his sidekick Dr.Watson, seeking help. Yearning for answers even. Hoping for a helping hand. She would do anything for her safety. Now, the issue she experiences is a mysterious noise that she and her, used to be alive, sister heard in the middle of the night. Helen feels that the noise is connected to her sister’s death! Sir Arthur Conan Doyle focused on multiple craft moves such as description, dialogue, and tone to help build suspense throughout the investigation.

For example, “‘He has a passion also for Indian animals, which are sent over to him by a correspondent, and he has at the moment a cheetah, and a baboon, which wander freely over his grounds…’” (Doyle 477). As this character is speaking, they are adding more and more and more complications to the story. When complications, clues or even facts within the investigation are added to the story, it can make the readers feel suspense because they just want the mystery to be solved already. They always think they have cracked the code. But did they? That is the question that drives them to read to the end with suspense in their heart. Another example of dialogue creating tension is when the narrator explains, “....and in a few words he sketched out what had occured. Miss Stoner turned white to the lips as she listened. ‘Good heavens!’ she cried, ‘he has followed me, then’” (Doyle 483). Dialogue helps curiosity build for the reader in this quote because they have now seen her reaction to the bad news. The reader is suspended by a thin rope that is about to snap - and show the climax to the story. Which is known to the have the most suspense in a

When there is a mystery filled with dialogue, description, and even different tones, the reader is bound to feel tension. Sir Arthur Conan Doyle uses all of these to make his readers question so many different things throughout the story about themselves, the characters and even the solution to the plot. This force - this great and magical force - is what drives the reader to the end of the story where they can find the answers they need. So that they can feel contempt with themselves once more. Before they can get to this point, they must experience more and more suspense being built in the story to make the story almost impossible to put down! Hopefully this kind of suspense can be seen in everyone's daily life for it may teach one strength and curiosity because it makes people think twice - and twice more- until they get what they wanted all