Lighting the Pipes

Given the explosive popularity of his "Adventures", it was a no-brainer for Conan Doyle to revive his titular hero in a second collection of serialised stories for "The Strand". First out of the gate for "The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes" is "The Adventure of Silver Blaze", which finds Holmes and Watson on location in Dartmoor. This famous case is followed by the graphic tale of revenge, "Adventure...

Episode 6 sees Bowman and the BFG share their thoughts on the final three stories of Doyle's "The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes". Lively discussion on the growing influence of America colours "The Noble Bachelor", while a royal bank loan brings ropy collateral damage in "The Beryl Coronet". The collection (and conversation) concludes with the imposing sway of the "Copper Beeches". 

In this instalment, Josh and Scott sit down to examine tales 7, 8 and 9 from Conan Doyle's "Adventures". Starting with the yuletide setting of "The Blue Carbuncle", the duo trade views on jewel theft before moving on to evaluate the highs and lows of the famous "Speckled Band". The gothic features and deceptively simple plot of "The Engineer's Thumb" round off the discussion.  

Discussions on "The Boscombe Valley Mystery", "The Five Orange Pips" and "The Man With the Twisted Lip" mark Bowman and the BFG's second foray into the stories of "The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes".  

"The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes" appeared two years after "The Sign of Four" and in serialised form within the pages of "The Strand Magazine". Here, in their first look at the collection, Scott and Josh discuss the first three stories: "A Scandal in Bohemia", "The Adventure of the Red-Headed League" and "A Case of Identity". 

Two years after Sherlock Holmes first appeared in "A Study in Scarlet", ACD dropped "The Sign of Four" onto the literary landscape. Larger and more imperial in scope, many regard this novel as Conan Doyle's finest extended Holmes adventure. Bowman and the BFG light the pipes and serve up their analysis in Episode 2.

In Episode 1, Scott and Josh (Bowman & the BFG) wield their amateur podcasting touch in discussing Conan Doyle's first Sherlock Holmes story. The series starts here, with our inaugural episode recorded in February 2017. Introductions, a brief Doyle biography and our approach to scoring and indexing our reading are each presented before diving into the origins of the Holmes phenomenon with "A S...