Pull up a chair, settle into your favourite armchair, and welcome to Echoes from 221B a space for wandering through the shadows of Baker Street and beyond.
This isn’t strictly a Sherlock Holmes reread blog (though I wouldn’t rule that out). Think of it more as a place where Holmes-adjacent thoughts live the odd deduction, a literary curiosity, or whatever peculiar clue catches my eye.
I thought I’d begin with a note on one of my favourite stories: The Adventure of the Naval Treaty.
It’s not often mentioned in the top Holmes tales, and yet it lingers with me. Yes, it’s a political document mystery with a locked-room feel but that’s just the surface. What intrigues me most is how ordinary the solution is, in contrast to the elaborate situation it emerges from.
The heart of the mystery lies not in a diabolical mastermind or a perfect crime, but in a character who simply collapses under pressure. Instead of rising to the challenge, he withers, hides, delays. And in that quiet failure that deeply human retreat the story becomes something more subtle than it first seems.
It reminds me that not all mysteries end with fireworks. Some fizzle, some fade, and some speak more to the psychology of fear than to the triumph of reason.
Anyway more soon. Expect musings, side trails, and plenty of fog. The game is always afoot, even when the clues are hiding in plain sight.
Andrew Peel is the author of Footsteps on the Moor a thoughtful reimagining of Sherlock Holmes time on Dartmoor via a private journal discovered by his brother Mycroft.