Sherlock Holmes and the Adventure of the Blue Carbuncle

The Adventure of the Blue Carbuncle
(c) 1892
by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle

In Sherlock Holmes' dilemma, The Adventure of the Blue Carbuncle, he and his faithful friend Doctor John Watson, embark on a mystery that at first doesn't seem very complex. The morning of Christmas, a police officer, Peterson, was walking down the street when he saw a gang of bullies assault a middle aged man who was carrying a Christmas goose, knocking off his hat. While running to help the man, Peterson witnessed the man accidentally break a shop window while trying to defend himself, then drop his goose in a panic and run away. Wanting to return both the hat and goose to the man, the police officer consulted Sherlock Holmes. Knowing that they won't be able to find the owner before the goose went bad, Holmes instructed Peterson to take the goose home to his own family, which he did.
Holmes and Watson who had come to wish him a belated Merry Christmas are casually discussing the situation when Peterson comes rushing back to show them what his wife found in the goose's crop while preparing the goose for dinner: a small blue gem! The Countess of Morcar had recently been robbed of her Blue Carbuncle, and Holmes, Watson, and Peterson quickly realize that this is the very same gem, and that the man who is accused of having stolen it, a repair man who was soldering a loose grate in the fireplace in the Countess's hotel room around the time it was stolen, may not be guilty after all. Returning the gem to the Countess won't be difficult, but how in the world did the Blue Carbuncle go from a countess's hotel room to a bird's stomach? Also, who is responsible for its theft? In addition, how will they find the man who was carrying the goose originally, and get him back his hat and a goose to replace the one that Peterson's family ate? But is the man in any way connected with the theft of the goose?

All of those questions are what Holmes and Watson intend to answer!

This was an entertaining short story by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, written originally in Victorian English, and I enjoyed following Dr. Watson and Mr. Holmes as they went after clues to find who really stole the Blue Carbuncle. I recommend this story to anyone who enjoys a good mystery.