This is the first of my Christmas readings this year.   It’s only a short story, (so it won’t count on my tally),  but it’s supposedly one of Doyle’s better Holmes tales, so I wanted to read it anyway,  and with the holidays here plus its being on sale…well…    

I’ve read his novels but not so many of the short stories.  I’d like to remedy that.  I think I have a volume of them around here. 

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The Adventures of the Blue Carbuncle
by Arthur Conan Doyle
1892 /  20(?) pages
read by Matt Montanez – 47m
rating:  8/B+ /but it’s Christmasy crime by a master
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Just around Christmas time there is a headline making robbery in London in which the thief got away with a precious gemstone,  a blue carbuncle.  A man who had been working at the mansion is quickly arrested but proclaims his innocence.  There is a hat left behind in a scuffle which provides Holmes with a great number of clues – naturally.  

And the stone turns up in the police chief’s Christmas dinner goose.  How in the world did it get there and why?   It’s a goodie, a nice puzzler but a bit lighter than some for the season.  

Text available here: 
http://etc.usf.edu/lit2go/32/the-adventures-of-sherlock-holmes/351/adventure-7-the-adventure-of-the-blue-carbuncle/