Arthur Conan Doyle, The Speckled Band and Other Stories, Macmillan Readers, B1, 1700 Headwords

By Álvaro Corral Suárez, 1º Bachillerato EFL

“The Speckled Band”

The story began in April, 1883, when a client, Helen Stoner, arrived at Holmes’s house and explained that her late mother had a lot of money, which would be given to her daughters in the case of getting married, but meanwhile it would be given to Helen’s stepfather. Helen’s sister would have got married two years ago if she hadn’t died in strange circumstances. Now Helen was going to get married, so she was afraid of being murdered like her sister. She suspected her stepfather, who had told Helen to move to her late sister’s room, where she had died. Holmes thought that Helen would be killed in that room, so he went to see it. He found a false bell cord near a false ventilator, so he thought that it would be used to kill Helen and he went to investigate.

“The Red-headed League”

This is a story about a man, Mr. Wilson who had red hair. First, there appears a notice in the newspaper and Vincent Spaulding shows it to his boss, Mr. Wilson. Mr. Wilson has a little business near Saxe-Coburg Square in London. His assistant is working only part time because the business isn´t going well, then Vincent convinces Mr. Wilson to join the Red-headed league. Mr. Wilson finally joins and goes to his new job every day, but one day when he arrives he doesn´t find anybody. Then he goes to Holmes´s house because he wants to tell him all about the red-headed league and about his assistant, too. Holmes began the investigation making questions to Mr. Wilson. Finally Holmes discovers the truth and stops the red-headed league boss.

I read these stories because I saw a film of Sherlock Holmes and I liked it. I have liked the book as well. I think that his books are interesting and I recommend them to people who like mystery, intrigue and adventures.