Neil Gaiman (1960-) is a British writer, Who is best known for the comic Book series, "The Sandman" and the novels "Stardust" and "American Gods". Neil Gaiman's 'A Study in Emerald' that won him the Hugo award, is a detective story published in 2003. He has derived its title from Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's, 'A study in Scarlet' that introduced Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson in 1887. Moreover, 'A Study in Emerald' shares a parallel structure and similar crime. The detective and his friend in this story are also quite clearly setup to be seen as Holmes and Watson. 'A study in Emerald' revolves around a corpse found at a derelict house in Shoreditch, London and its investigation.
'A Study in Emerald'
has five chapters with five titles relating to the content. A wounded soldier
back from Afghanistan is the narrator. In the first chapter 'The New Friend',
the narrator happened to share a room with a consulting detective in Baker
Street. In the very first meeting the detective found that he was a wounded
soldier from Afghanistan. Moreover, one day, when they were at their breakfast table,
he needed a place for a gentleman who would come there after five minutes. As he
said, Inspector Lestrade entered there five minutes later. Though he didn't get
any message earlier, from the very clatter of a brougham, he guessed everything.
That was his speciality.
The Inspector Lestrade
took the detective to Shoreditch to get his assistance in the investigation of
a murder case of national importance. The detective took the narrator too, with
him. In the second chapter 'The Room', the detective surveyed the cheap rooming
house in Shoreditch, where a dead body with bile-green blood socked into the thread
bare of the carpet and spattered the wall paper. On the faded wall paper, the
word 'RACHE ' was also written. Actually it was the dead body of Prince Franz Drago of Bohemia. He was there as a guest of Her Majesty Victoria. However the
detective took a pinch of ash in a glass vial that he found near the fireplace.
In the third chapter,
"The Palace' both the detective and the narrator visited the Palace. When
Queen Victoria asked about the furtherance of the murder case, the detective
said that there were two other men with her nephew, the Prince Franz Drago
there in that room. In the fourth Chapter, 'The Performance" the detective
took the narrator to a theatre at Drury Lane. They enjoyed there, three one-act plays. Then the detective showed a visiting card to
one lady and asked her to take him to Mr. Vernet. The detective introduced him
as Henry Camberley, a theatrical promoter and the narrator as Sebastian. He convinced
them that he would arrange programmes for them in the New World, America. Mr.
Vernet said that the plays were written by his friend who was not there then, when
the detective desired to meet the writer. Then purposefully, he took his pipe
and got the strong shag of Mr. Vernet. He
invited Mr. Vernet and his author friend to his rooms at Baker street, the next
day.
In the fifth chapter 'The Skin and The Pit', the detective revealed the truth that Mr. Vernet and his friend the limping doctor, a soldier from Afghanistan, who were actually "Restorationists", were the murderers of Prince Franz Drago. Though Inspector Lestrade was waiting with hand cuffs to arrest them, only a letter from Mr. Vernet reached there. As the detective found the murderers, Mr. Vernet too found about the trap of the detective and Lestrade. They escaped forever. However, the narrator preserved the letters in a locker and came out with this narration. Both the Queen and Lestrade thanked the detective for his identifying the murderers of the Prince. However the detective's sense of deduction leaves not only the narrator amazed but the readers too, at many places.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-hJd8p_Uy1s
-----Thulasidharan V
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