by Conan Doyle · Cluster: Detective Fiction · Ratiocination Detection · Crime and Punishment

Abstract

An unfinished Holmes fragment, later completed by other writers, in which a young man is wrongly convicted of murdering his sweetheart’s uncle. Holmes exposes a rival suitor’s frame-up involving stilts disguised as ladder-marks, then extracts a confession by staging a terrifying apparition of the murdered man.

Connections

Forms & Genres: Detective Fiction, Short Story Themes & Concepts: Ratiocination Detection, Crime and Punishment, Justice Right and Wrong, Deception, Guilt Motifs: Ghosts, Concealment Hidden Identity Settings: Rural England Characters: Sherlock Holmes, Doctor Watson Archetypes: Detective, Villain