My Obsession With My Least Favorite Sherlock Holmes Story

My Obsession With My Least Favorite Sherlock Holmes Story

 

I was in Middle School when I was first introduced to the Sherlock Holmes universe.  As a gift, my parents gave me this beautiful hardcover copy of The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes with illustrations by Barry Moser.  Each story had a beautifully painted image, and I swiftly became obsessed with the Sherlock Holmes universe.  (Soon afterwards, I received another gift consisting of a one-volume collection of The Complete Sherlock Holmes.)

 

But there was a problem.  I loved most of the stories.  “The Speckled Band” was by far my favorite.  My least favorite, however, was “A Scandal in Bohemia.”  It seemed like such an odd way to me to start the collection.  I just didn’t like to see Holmes lose!  Not only that, but even my ten-year-old mind started seeing holes in the story.  He could have easily achieved his objective and gotten ahold of the photograph.  

 

Time passed, and I never stopped obsessing about the problems I had with “A Scandal in Bohemia.”  I started asking more questions.  “What about the negative to the photograph?  “Why was there a two-year limit to the King’s secrets?”  “Why was Irene Adler in such a rush to get married?”  “Didn’t the King accept Adler’s getting away too readily?”  Some things never sat right with me.

 

As I read and reread the series many times over the years, I kept coming back to “A Scandal in Bohemia” and finding more and more unanswered questions.  During graduate school, I discovered Monsignor Ronald Knox and his “Great Game,” and I started applying his approach to unanswered questions from Agatha Christie novels, which were eventually published on the official website.  (Spoiler warning!)

 

Over the past few years, I started to come up with some answers to the questions about “A Scandal in Bohemia” that had plagued me for years.  This spring, having a bit of spare time during quarantine, I managed to write and complete my book Sherlock & Irene: The Secret Truth Behind “A Scandal in Bohemia, coming out from MX Publishing this August.  In Sherlock & Irene, I finally answer all of the questions that bugged me about “A Scandal in Bohemia” for most of my life, and conclude that Holmes didn’t actually fail in his mission after all!

 

 

 

–Chris Chan

 

Chris Chan’s first book, Sherlock & Irene: The Secret Truth Behind “A Scandal in Bohemia” will be released on August 27^th from MX Publishing, and is available for sale at Amazon.com and the MX Publishing website.