Format for a Sherlock Holmes story:

"The Adventure of The Speckled Band"

  1. Between cases Holmes is a wreck; Watson always discovers Holmes in his chaotic apartment completely paranoid and on the verge of a nervous breakdown from drug abuse.
  2. A beautiful woman needs help and comes to Holmes to ask him to take on her case.
  3. Holmes figures out much of the mystery at this very first meeting due to his extraordinary powers of inductive reasoning.
  4. The back story is supplied by the damsel in distress. Holmes listens carefully! What details does he note?
  5. The climax of the back story recounts the horrible MURDER!!! What is most amazing? It seems like (but that's impossible!) some dark SUPERNATURAL power is at work!!
  6. We are led towards a potential suspect, but Holmes is not fooled so easily!
  7. A-HA! Holmes tells Watson to ‘pack his gun’, for ‘the game’s afoot!’
  8. As Holmes researches the case, there are more suggestions of a supernatural solutions to the case. The mansion seems haunted! No one could have entered that room except a GHOST!
  9. Long before Watson or the reader has figured out the mystery, Holmes has GOT IT!
  10. Usually, but not in "The Speckled Band", Holmes disguises himself in a way which completely fools Watson.
  11. Holmes plan to lure the criminal out is to recreate the original crime. Supernatural occurrences are hinted at!
  12. Holmes catches the villain in a moment of extreme...Oh, the SUSPENSE! Watson’s gun may be fired.
  13. At the very end Holmes explains all for Watson and for the readers who did not quite get what was happening.

"The Final Problem"

  1. Holmes appears to Watson thin, pale, bleeding and paranoid.
  2. Holmes supplies the back story, about his evil nemesis, Professor Moriarty!
  3. The confrontation between Holmes and his evil double.
  4. After actually meeting Moriarty, Holmes is henceforth convinced that everything that happens to him is a threat, evidence of Moriarty's plot on his life!
  5. Holmes tells Watson to 'pack his gun', for 'the game’s afoot!'
  6. Holmes' disguise fools Watson again.
  7. Holmes and Watson flee London for the continent and eventually Switzerland with Professor Moraiarty and his minions in hot pursuit.
  8. But Holmes cannot escape: he meets his doom above the mighty waterfalls at Reichenbach.
  9. In a note left at the scene, Holmes explains all.