#seed pools

[worst-sherlockholmes-story]

vote for the WORSE story!

which story is worse? [pool 1]

The Adventure of the Speckled Band

The Adventure of the Copper Beeches

Voting ended onJul 18, 2024

The Adventure of the Speckled Band: Holmes is contacted by a young woman, Helen, who fears her stepfather wishes to kill her. Her sister died two years ago before she could be married. Helen is now about to marry and has been moved into the room her sister died in. Holmes deduces that the women's stepfather sent a venomous snake through an adjoining vent to prevent them from taking the portion of Helen's mother's inheritance that was to be given to the women when they married.

The Adventure of the Copper Beeches: Holmes is contacted by a young woman who has been offered a position as a governess with strange stipulations about how she should appear. Holmes deduces that the governess is unknowingly pretending to be the daughter of the man who hired her. The daughter was locked in the attic because she had been about to elope and take part of her inheritance that her father had previously been allowed.

[worst-sherlockholmes-story]

vote for the WORSE story!

which story is worse? [pool 4]

The Adventure of the Three Gables

The Adventure of the Devil's Foot

Voting ended onJul 21, 2024

The Adventure of the Three Gables: Holmes has been messaged by an elderly woman who has been offered a large sum for her house on the condition that all of her belongings are also sold. Holmes deduces that the offer comes from someone who wants the woman's late son's possessions. Later, the woman grabs part of a manuscript as it is stolen from her son's trunk. Holmes deduces from the scrap that the son threatened to expose a rich woman's affair and that the woman has been behind the house purchase and the theft.

The Adventure of the Devil's Foot: Holmes is on holiday in Cornwall when a vicar and his lodger consult Holmes about the sudden insanity and death of the lodger's three siblings. The next day, the lodger is found dead in the same way. Holmes deduces that both were killed by an airborne poison and that the lodger killed his siblings, then was killed by a man who was in love with the lodger's late sister.

[worst-sherlockholmes-story]

vote for the WORSE story!

which story is worse? [pool 2]

The Adventure of the Beryl Coronet

The Adventure of the Engineer's Thumb

Voting ended onJul 19, 2024

The Adventure of the Beryl Coronet: Holmes is contacted by a banker who has been entrusted with a beryl coronet as collateral for a loan. The banker found his son trying to bend the broken coronet. Holmes deduces that the coronet was actually broken by the banker's niece and the son's friend who sold the beryls. The son let his father think he had broken the coronet to cover for his cousin (the banker's niece).

The Adventure of the Engineer's Thumb: Watson brings an engineer to Holmes. The engineer was offered a handsome payment for fixing a hydraulic press in the country. While fixing it, he realized that it was not being used for its stated purpose, at which point his employer attempted to kill him with the hydraulic press, then, having failed that, cut off his thumb with a cleaver. Holmes deduces that the employer was a forger using the press to mint half-crowns.

[worst-sherlockholmes-story]

vote for the WORSE story!

which story is worse? [pool 2]

The Adventure of the Three Garridebs

The Adventure of the Engineer's Thumnb

Voting ended onJul 19, 2024

The Adventure of the Three Garridebs: Holmes is contacted by a man named Nathan Garrideb who wishes for Holmes' help finding another Garrideb. An American Garrideb has told Nathan that an eccentric millionaire Garrideb has directed his fortune to be divided equally amongst three men with the same last name as he. Holmes deduces that the American Garrideb's story is an elaborate ruse to get Nathan out of his rooms so that he may steal the forging supplies left by the previous tenant.

The Adventure of the Engineer's Thumb: Watson brings an engineer to Holmes. The engineer was offered a handsome payment for fixing a hydraulic press in the country. While fixing it, he realized that it was not being used for its stated purpose, at which point his employer attempted to kill him with the hydraulic press, then, having failed that, cut off his thumb with a cleaver. Holmes deduces that the employer was a forger using the press to mint half-crowns.

[worst-sherlockholmes-story]

vote for the WORSE story!

which story is worse? [pool 1]

The Adventure of the Red Circle

The Adventure of the Three Students

Voting ended onJul 18, 2024

The Adventure of the Red Circle: Holmes is contacted by a landlady who is worried about a strange tenant who never leaves his room and requests things only by written notes. Holmes deduces that the tenant is not the bearded man who originally rented the room. The tenant is the wife of the bearded man who is being hidden from a dangerous criminal.

The Adventure of the Three Students: Holmes is contacted by a lecturer who has noticed that the answers to an exam have been disturbed in a way that suggests they've been copied. There are only three students that could have copied them. Holmes deduces that the culprit is the disgraced noble's son.

[worst-sherlockholmes-story]

vote for the WORSE story!

which story is worse? [pool 1]

The Adventure of the Red Circle

The Adventure of the Speckled Band

Voting ended onJul 18, 2024

The Adventure of the Red Circle: Holmes is contacted by a landlady who is worried about a strange tenant who never leaves his room and requests things only by written notes. Holmes deduces that the tenant is not the bearded man who originally rented the room. The tenant is the wife of the bearded man who is being hidden from a dangerous criminal.

The Adventure of the Speckled Band: Holmes is contacted by a young woman, Helen, who fears her stepfather wishes to kill her. Her sister died two years ago before she could be married. Helen is now about to marry and has been moved into the room her sister died in. Holmes deduces that the women's stepfather sent a venomous snake through an adjoining vent to prevent them from taking the portion of Helen's mother's inheritance that was to be given to the women when they married.

[worst-sherlockholmes-story]

vote for the WORSE story!

which story is worse? [pool 4]

The Adventure of Shoscombe Old Place

The Adventure of the Devil's Foot

Voting ended onJul 21, 2024

The Adventure of Shoscombe Old Place: Holmes is contacted by a trainer who is concerned about his master's strange behavior. Holmes deduces that the master, along with two servants, has been covering up his sister's death to prevent her fortune from reverting to her late husband's brother until he can win a horse race and pay off his debts.

The Adventure of the Devil's Foot: Holmes is on holiday in Cornwall when a vicar and his lodger consult Holmes about the sudden insanity and death of the lodger's three siblings. The next day, the lodger is found dead in the same way. Holmes deduces that both were killed by an airborne poison and that the lodger killed his siblings, then was killed by a man who was in love with the lodger's late sister.

[worst-sherlockholmes-story]

vote for the WORSE story!

which story is worse? [pool 3]

The Adventure of the Stockbroker's Clerk

The Hound of the Baskervilles

Voting ended onJul 20, 2024

The Adventure of the Stockbroker's Clerk: Holmes is contacted by a clerk who has been offered a well-paid position on the condition that he not resign from the position he has already accepted at a different company. Holmes deduces that the two men the clerk saw at his job are one and the same, and that the man's accomplice has secretly been posing as the clerk at his prior job in hopes of breaking into the building's safe.

The Hound of the Baskervilles: Holmes is contacted by a doctor who fears that his friend, Sir Charles Baskerville, has been killed by a hellhound of legend. Holmes deduces that a neighbor of Baskerville Hall is a secret descendant who hoped to gain the Baskerville fortune by killing off previous heirs. He painted a large dog with phosphorus, which frightened Sir Charles to death.