Sherlock Holmes And the Adventure of the Clothes-line

by Carolyn Wells

Although immortalized by his creation of the legendary Sherlock Holmes, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle enjoyed a long and varied literary career, ranging from the deductions of the Great Detective through the historical romances of 'Brigadier Gerard' and 'The White Company', the science fictional adventures of the fiery scientist George Edward Challenger as presented in the original 'The Lost World' and 'The Day the Earth Screamed', among others, to writings on true crime, spiritualism and even the social novel.

A mysterious, fashionably dressed woman is seen inexplicably dangling from a shabby tenement washing-line six stories above the pavement...and just as impossibly, vanishes!
The Great Detective, Sherlock Holmes himself, convenes an emergency meeting of the Society of Infallible a simply penny-dreadful assembly of turn-of-the-century dime-novel detectives, to delve into the mystery. It's an all-star line-up of pulp-fiction the gentleman rogues Raffles and Arsene Lupin; the Thinking-Machine; M. Dupin; the Messieurs Vidoq and Lecoq (The Prince of Footprints); Mr. Gryce; Rouletabille; Luther Trant, Scientific Sprague and the ever-admiring Dr. Watson. Between them, surely they are smart enough to deduce the secret of the dangling dame and her dark destiny!
Instead, they find out that it's possible to be too smart for the job.
This is a 'lost' version of this wonderful story, predating even the 1915 publication in 'Century' magazine. Charmingly illustrated by Frederic Dorr Steel, this light-hearted but remarkably entertaining historical document was one of the first Sherlock Holmes pastiches ever published and one of the few approved by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle himself!
A delight to read and a genuine find for Holmes fans and collectors of literature and popular culture!

16 pages, Paperback

First published July 1, 2005

About the author

Carolyn Wells was a prolific writer for over 40 years and was especially noted for her humor, and she was a frequent contributor of nonsense verse and whimsical pieces to such little magazines as Gelett Burgess' The Lark, the Chap Book, the Yellow Book, and the Philistine.

Librarian note: There is more than one author in the Goodreads database with this name.

Reviews

[Vintagebooklvr · Rating 3 out of 5]

Humorous tale of fictional great detectives trying to solve the mystery of why a woman would cross a clothes-line in fancy dress. Always fun when they are wrong.

[Carol Palmer · Rating 3 out of 5]

A silly little short story which includes all the great fictional detectives of the time (late 19th - early 20th centuries).

[Gail · Rating 4 out of 5]

A short and fun satire of “vintage” mystery sleuths.