Detective story is an exciting type of popular literature with a very gripping story telling
technique in which a crime is introduced, investigated, and ultimately solved. Writers like
Edgar Allan Poe, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, Dan Brown, James Patterson and John Grisham
are some of the more popular names when it comes to detective story writing.
Elements for detective stories would usually include an almost flawless crime, an
innocent suspect, law officers that are inept, the cunning detective who will reveal the real
culprit, and the denouement where the detective explains how he solved the puzzling crime.
The most popular detective work is Conan Doyle’s Sherlock Holmes. Holmes enigmatic
appeal drew millions of fans into following his adventures along with his companion, Dr.
Watson. Holme’s popularity still remains 126 years after his first appearance even generating
new versions like the Japanese animé, Detective Conan, the BBC’s famous television show
Holmes, and Hollywood blockbusters which stars Robert Downey Jr.
The popularity of detective stories relies heavily on the suspense it creates and the
reader’s anticipation for the revelation. By far, serial writers of the 21st century have not failed
their fans yet.
A STUDY IN EMERALD(summary)
Written by Neil Gaiman
1. The New Friend
In 1881, the (yet-unnamed) narrator is sent home to convalesce after being
wounded in the shoulder in Afghanistan. In London, a mutual friend introduces the
narrator to a potential flatmate. The two meet in the chemical lab of St. Bartholomew’s
Hospital, where the man proceeds to astonish the narrator by deducing that he is a
soldier recently returned from Afghanistan. Although the narrator warns the man that
he sometimes screams in his sleep, the man humorously replies that he snores, is easily
bored, is selfish, and sometimes uses the mantle for target practice. The two take up
lodgings in Baker Street, where the narrator is intrigued by the constant flow of odd
visitors that his flatmate receives.
Sometime later the two are eating breakfast when the narrator’s friend perceives
that they will shortly be joined by a client. He is proved right when Inspector Lestrade
of Scotland Yard enters, who proceeds to sit down and help himself to some sausages.
The narrator’s friend states that clearly this must be a case of national importance,
frightening Lestrade into believing that the matter was public knowledge. However, he
reassures him that he only deduced so because Lestrade came despite not being able to
be publicly seen getting the advice of London’s only “consulting detective”, and in
addition without eating breakfast. Lestrade, somewhat cautiously, asks whether it
would be best for the narrator toleave the room; however, the detective assures him that
it is better he stay. The detective then again confounds Lestrade by asking when they
should leave for Shoreditch (because of the yellow mud on the inspector’s pants), and
accepts the case.
The narrator and the detective travel to the East End of London, though in a
separate cab from Lestrade. On the ride there, the narrator asks his friend about his
job as a “consulting detective”. The detective responds that he does not take cases:
rather, people bring him their insoluble problems, he listens, and sometimes solves
them. Most of his clients are in fact police and detectives who are incapable of solving
their crimes. As they enter the rookery slum of St Giles, the narrator asks the detective
if he is sure he had like to have him along. The detective replies that he feels the two
were meant to be together, and that knows the value of a good companion, making the
narrator feel self-worth for the first time since Afghanistan.
2. The Room
In Shoreditch, the two friends reunite with Lestrade and make for the crime
scene, located in a cheap lodging house guarded by policemen. The body lies gutted in
the center of the room, and green blood is splattered on the floors and walls. On one
wall the word "Rache" is written in the victim's blood, which the detective proceeds to
examine. Lestrade assumes that the victim was writing the name "Rachel". He deduces
from the green colour of the blood, the number of limbs on the body, and the nature of
the eyes that the victim was clearly a royal, likely a prince of a German state. Lestrade
confirms that the victim was Prince Franz Drago of Bohemia, a nephew of Queen Victoria
who was staying in England for his health (or, as the detective puts it, for "theatres,
whores, and gaming tables"). The detective, complaining about the police's amateurish
efforts destroying the evidence, proceeds to inspect some splattered mud and a pile of
ash. He then states that Lestrade is foolish to be looking for a woman, as the word
"Rache" means "revenge" in German.
After leaving the detective notices the narrator visibly shaken, and asks is it is
the first time he has encountered royalty. The narrator responds yes, to which the
detective replies that he will shortly have the pleasure of meeting a royal in person. The
detective points out a black carriage with the royal crest emblazoned in gold on the door.
The two climb into the carriage and head off towards towards the royal palace.
3. The Palace
At the palace the two men are met by the Queen's consort, Prince Albert. The
prince informs them that the queen is very upset, and that is was he who suggested
bringing the detective in to work on the case. The two are ushered in to the Queen's
audience chamber, a cavernous, dark room where the Queen, a massive, hulking figure,
squats in a corner. She beckons them forward with a squirming limb: the narrator is
too frightened to move, but the detective pulls him forward. The Queen places her limb
on his shoulder, relieving his pain and filling him with a sense of-well being. She then
communicates (apparently telepathically) with the detective, who fills her in on the
details of the case, stating that there were two men in the room with her nephew. After
leaving the palace it is already dark, and the detective says nothing to his companion
all the way back to Baker Street. Upon returning to the house, the narrator looks at his
wounded shoulder in the mirror: he notices that some colour has come back to the
formerly frog-white skin.
4. The Performance
Over the next ten days the detective leaves the house several times under a
number of masterful disguises, but shares nothing with the narrator about what hehas
been doing. At last the detective asks the narrator if he would like to accompany him to
the theatre, an invitation which he accepts. They head to the Royal Court Theatre,
located very near the rookery of St Giles on Drury Lane. The narrator, who was expecting
some sort of opera, is surprised as the theatre is the worst on the street. As they take
their seats in the stalls, the detective tells the narrator he should be glad he did not
have to accompany him to the brothels and gambling-houses, or the madhouses, where
the prince also liked to visit. He begins to tell the narrator that the prince never visited
one place more than once, with one exception, but is cut off by orchestra signalling the
start of the show.
The show consists of three one-act plays, the first a comedy of mistaken identity,
and the second a tragedy about an impoverished young violet-seller. The third act,
however, is a historical epic entitled "The Great Old Ones Come", which recounts the
emergence of the Old Ones from the sea and their conquest of the world. The show ends
with the entire audience cheering as a paper moon turns from yellow (as it was in the
past) to crimson (as the narrator remarks it is currently.)
Following the performance, the detective and narrator go backstage, where the
detective asks for Mr Sherry Vernet. The detective introduces himself as Mr 'Henry
Camberley', a theatrical promoter from the New World, and his friend as Mr Sebastian.
'Camberley' asks if Vernet wrote the last play: Vernet replies no, although he did devise
the magic lantern effects that accompanied it. He declines to name the author, stating
that he does not want his connection to the theatre to be known. 'Camberley' acts
disappointed, then brings out a pipe and pats his pockets. Not having any tobacco, he
asks for some of Vernet's, who gladly gives him some of his. The two smoke while
'Camberley' describes his vision of a multinational performance tour, starting with the
play depicting the arrival of the Old Ones and followed by two more new acts written by
the mysterious author. He promises Vernet fifty percent of the take, if he and his author
friend will come to Baker Street the next morning to draw up the contracts. Vernet
announces this to the company, who react enthusiastically.
After the two leave the theatre, the narrator attempts to ask the detective what
he was looking for, but is interrupted by his friend, who cautions him that the city has
many ears. Once inside a cab, the detective proceeds to tap the tobacco from his pipe
into a small tin, and announces that he has found the Tall Man, and hopefully tomorrow
will have found the Limping Doctor. The narrator reacts with confusion to this, but the
detective explains that from the footprints at the crime scene he could tell that of the
two men in the room, one was very tall: this was the Mr Vernet they had just met. The
other had a limp, and from the skill which he eviscerated the prince, must have been a
doctor. As the two get off the cab, the detective tips the man a florin, but finds it odd
when he does not stop for another man at the corner.
5. The Skin and the Pit
The next morning Lestrade arrives at Baker Street, and posts policemen outside
to arrest anyone who tries to leave the building after entering as they wait for Mr Vernet
to arrive. The detective shows his pipe from last night and the vial of ash he collected in
Shoreditch to Lestrade, saying that it is the final nail in the coffin of Mr Vernet. He then
asks the narrator what he knows of the Restorationists.
Despite Lestrade's obvious discomfort and protestations, the detective proceeds
to explain that the Restorationists are rebels who want to overthrow the Old Ones and
put mankind back in control of its own destiny. It was they who killed Prince Franz
Drago. The word "Rache", an old term for a hunting dog as well as meaning revenge,
was his signature. However, the hunter did not kill the prince. Theman who wrote the
word on the wall was tall, having written the word at eye-level and tapped his pipe out
on the mantle – an unusual blend of shag. The footprints in the room indicated that
someone had been waiting inside the room, someone who had put more pressure on his
right foot. The tall man had entered the room with the prince, where his accomplice had
been waiting to murder him. However, despite spending days retracing the prince's
movements, he had not been able to figure out who the tall man was until he saw in a
Bohemian newspaper, that an English theatrical troupe had performed for the prince in
Prague. The leading man, Sherry Vernet, was therefore obviously a restorationist.
At that moment a knock comes on the door. The three men are disappointed to
see it is not Vernet, or the limping doctor, but rather a young boy with a letter for Mr
'Henry Camberley'. The detective accepts the letter, and asks about the man who gave
it to the boy: he replies that the man was tall, dark-haired, and smoked a pipe.
The letter reveals that the Tall Man knows not only that the detective is not Henry
Camberley, but that he knows his real name. He in fact has read a number of his papers,
and corresponded with him on his paper The Dynamics of an Asteroid.
He proceeds to list the mistakes the detective made in his disguise when visiting
the theatre: firstly, that it is unlikely a pipe-smoking man would have a new pipe and
no tobacco; secondly, that it is very unlikely that a theatrical producer would not only
be ignorant of the usual theatrical payment standards; and thirdly, that he would be
accompanied by a taciturn ex-army officer (whom he also correctly deduces is back from
Afghanistan). Furthermore, he advises that cab drivers also have ears, and that in the
future it would be best not to take the first cab that comes along.
Finally, the letter-writer admits that he was the one who lured the "half-blood
creature" to the room in Shoreditch, after promising him a virginal girl abducted from a
convent in Cornwall whom the prince could easily drive to madness, a practice for which
the prince (and the other Old Ones) was known. The doctor, who also wrote the play
seen, was waiting for them. The letter concludes by saying that the detective almost
proved a worthy adversary, and the Tall Man will not reveal his name until the world is
restored. It is signed "Rache".
Inspector Lestrade leaves with the young urchin for the place where he was given
the letter. The detective comments that the police will likely close all the ports and trains
to prevent them from leaving the country, but that it is more likely that the two are
hiding out in the rookery of St. Giles until the search dies down. The narrator asks how
he knows, to which the detective replies that it is what he would do if their situations
were reversed. He advises the narrator to burn the letter.
In the end, Lestrade keeps his job, and Prince Albert writes a letter congratulating
the detective on his job, though lamenting that the criminal is still at large. Sherry
Vernet remains at large, his true identity unknown, as does his accomplice, tentatively
identified as John (or James) Watson, another veteran of the Afghan war. The narrator's
shoulder continues to heal where the Queen touched it, and he comments that soon he
shall be able to shoot once again. The narrator asks the detective if he remembered his
correspondence with Rache, to which the detective replies that he did, though at the
time he had been using the name "Sigerson". Finally the Palace sends word that the
Queen was pleased, finally closing the case: however, the narrator is unconvinced,
saying it will not be over until either the detective or Rache kills the other.
The story concludes with the narrator requesting for his manuscript to be sealed
in a strongbox and not opened until everyone is dead, though this may be closer than
he anticipates due to recent events in Russia. The letter concludes with the signature
"S_ M_, Major (retired), Baker Street, London, New Albion, 1881."("A Study In Emerald" 2020)
