“The Adventures of the Speckled Band” Arthur Conan Doyle is famous for writing short stories filled with suspense and mystery that keep his readers entertained and returning for more. In The Adventure of the Speckled Band, Arthur Conan Doyle writes how Sherlock Holmes and Watson solve the mystery surrounding the death of Julia Roylott before her sister Helen is murdered the same way. Doyle uses red herrings, imagery and repetition to help make his short story a successful mystery. Although scattered clues are generally well placed in a mystery, Doyle leaves red herrings along the way that add to the reader's suspense and adventure. Helen informs Holmes and Watson at their first meeting that she lives on the estate of her stepfather Dr. Roylott. Her sister Julia was murdered there there two years ago before her wedding. She tells the investigators that there is no serenity because “The Dr. kept a cheetah and a baboon” (pg. 3). Additionally, there are bands of gypsies that live on the estate as well. When Helen tells Holmes that there was a loud whistling before her sister's murder, Holmes answers “must be those wretched gipsies” (pg. 3) and that he “thinks there is a good ground to think the mystery maybe cleared along those lines” (pg. 5). In the same way …show more content…
The repetition serves as a way to cut through the tension in the story. When Holmes and Watson are sitting in the dark room anxiously waiting, “suddenly there was a momentary glare”(pg.10 ), that pause gives the reader a moment to take a breath and release the tension that built in the dark. However, in the same paragraph the word suddenly is used again. This time it builds the tension, “Then suddenly another sound became became audible” (pg. 10). Doyle repeats suddenly to to build the reader's anxiety and encourages them to keep reading. Repetition of the word suddenly releases and builds tension in the