Sherlock Holmes / Sherlock Holmes - Tropes U to Z

This page is for tropes that have appeared in the Sherlock Holmes short stories.

For the rest:

• A to G
• H to N
• O to T

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• Uncertified Expert: The criminal of The Dying Detective is stated by Holmes to be an expert in tropical diseases, not because he's a doctor, but because his plantations in southeast Asia put him in daily contact with them. This allows him to kill his victims with diseases the average London doctor (including Watson) has never heard of.
• Unexpected Inheritance:
  • In "The Adventure of the Solitary Cyclist", Holmes's client has no idea why the villains are interested in her, but it turns out to be because they know she has a distant relative who's about to die and leave her all his money.
  • A fake one is used in "The Adventure of the Three Garridebs".
  • In "The Adventure of the Norwood Builder", John MacFarlane unexpectedly learns that he's been named the sole beneficiary of a rich old man who used to know his parents. Then the old man dies in suspicious circumstances... It turns out the old man had a grudge against MacFarlane's parents and his sole purpose in making their son his heir was to frame him for Inheritance Murder.
• Unreliable Narrator: Holmes accuses Watson of being one to some extent. Specifically, how Watson ramps up the suspense element instead of the logic, which probably means Holmes' infuriating habit of making Watson wait until the end of the case to hear the solution (and Watson's own cluelessness up to that point) are both narrative inventions of Watson's. Holmes also criticises the general portrayal of himself as an infallible supergenius.
  • Considering Watson openly admits to having mixed up narratives in ordinary conversation at a tense moment (e.g. relating a story from his army days about firing a double-barrelled tiger cub at a musket that had poked its nose into his tent), it could be argued that he accuses himself of being one, too.
  • Many Holmes scholars have noted that people and places Watson gives in his accounts - villages, street names, British nobility, etc. simply don't exist. We can only assume that Watson created false names for the sake of client confidentiality, which makes sense since Holmes wouldn't be in demand if all the world knew of his clients' personal problems. The King of Bohemia as described in "A Scandal in Bohemia" is from an entirely fictitious Royal House (The real-life king of Bohemia was also king of Hungary, Croatia, and Emperor of Austria; also, his name was Franz Joseph, and he was married) and therefore has to be a stand-in for some other European monarch. This is a subject ripe for fan speculation, but King Edward VII is the most popular choice, followed by Kaiser Wilhelm II. Said King is about to be married to the second Princess of Scandinavia - when Scandinavia was not (and, in fact, has never been^note the famous Kalmar Union united all three crowns of Scandinavia under a common monarch, but the three countries maintained separate administrations, nobility, and parliaments, and by the time that began to change Sweden had broken away under a new dynasty) a single country.
• Unspoken Plan Guarantee: Setting up culprits to incriminate themselves, Holmes never lets Watson or the police in on what he's planning. Often, they (and readers) don't even have any idea which culprit he's expecting will show up.
  • Note that "A Scandal in Bohemia", Holmes' most well-known failure to catch a culprit, involves Holmes telling Watson and his client his plan in exact detail, only for it to be foiled.
  • Similarly, "The Yellow Face" has Holmes give Watson his conclusion regarding the mysterious masked man's identity before the end of the story, and later proven wrong (it's not the woman's dead husband but their daughter). This is the case that Holmes asks Watson to remind him of if ever he starts taking things too lightly.
• The Uriah Gambit: "The Crooked Man", with the Trope Namer being discussed at the end.
• Unbuilt Trope: By now, even ardent fans of the series are used to the classic image of Holmes as the genius "superhero detective" who stands up for justice and battles criminals and evil geniuses. The series shows many tropes that are now familiar in the genre.
  • Asshole Victim: Several times; see the Asshole Victim entry above.
  • Defective Detective: Holmes' eccentricities are portrayed very differently from more modern depictions of the detective. While the modern Defective Detective can credit much of their forensic skills to their eccentricities, they also at times hinder the detective.
  • Forensic Drama: Holmes simply explains all of his forensic analysis at the end, with the reader seldom privy to intermediate steps.
  • Police Procedural: Sherlock Holmes, a private detective, is seldom described doing the same procedure exactly the same way. He is also wildly inconsistent on whether or not he does detailed interviews of witnesses. The police, who do follow a set procedure, generally don't get the job done.
• The Unsolved Mystery: In "The Problem of Thor Bridge" Watson mentions at least three cases even Holmes could not solve. He even justifies not publishing them because: "A problem without a solution may interest the student, but can hardly fail to annoy the casual reader."
  • Holmes mentions a few that were unsolved at a time, but that he proceeds to resolve in the current story.
• Unusual Hiring Practices: In "The Red-Headed League", the titular League seems to exclusively employ red-headed men for meaningless tasks like copying out the entire Encyclopedia Britannica... because it's actually a front for some bank robbers to tunnel into the bank next door.
• Unwitting Instigator of Doom: The Swiss messenger who lures Watson away in "The Final Problem" was formerly the trope namer.
• Vehicle-Roof Body Disposal: The Ur-Example and Trope Maker is "The Adventure of the Bruce-Partington Plans". The killer deposited the corpse on top of a train that was stopped outside the window of the flat where the murder was committed. The body later fell off in the Underground.
• Vehicular Kidnapping: In "The Red Circle", the client's husband is kidnapped by a group of toughs who ambush him in the street and drag him into a horse-drawn cab. He's later released when the kidnappers realize they've got the wrong man, but the strange event is what draws Holmes into the mystery.
• Victoria's Secret Compartment: Where Mrs. Trelawney Hope keeps the second key to her husband's dispatch case in "The Second Stain", and Milverton's visitor kept her gun in his self-titled story.
• Villain Has a Point: Williamson, the Sinister Minister in "The Solitary Cyclist" declares that his status as a clergyman cannot be taken away from him "Once a clergyman, always a clergyman." According to an annotated edition of Sherlock Holmes, at the time the story took place this was correct.
• Villainous Lineage: Holmes believes that Moriarty turned out evil because of "hereditary tendencies of the darkest kind" magnified by his incredible natural genius.
• Villain with Good Publicity: No one could believe Moriarty was a master criminal even when "The Final Problem" was published. According to Watson he only published an account of his dear friend's death because, thanks to Moriarty's brother, people still didn't believe he was guilty. Moriarty was described by an Inspector as being "a very respectable, learned, and talented sort of man" and even went as far as saying that "When he put his hand on my shoulder as we were parting, it was like a father's blessing before you go out into the cold, cruel world." Holmes couldn't help but chuckle at the irony.
• Wall of Weapons:
  • The decor at Hurlstone from "The Musgrave Ritual" is mostly old wall-mounted trophy weapons. Musgrave picks up a battle-axe from one of these to deal with an intruder... which turns out to be his butler Brunton.
  • "The Crooked Man"'s death takes place in a former Indian colonel's home, so the presumed murder weapon is believed to have come from there.
  • "The Second Stain" has one of a set of knives in the home of Eduardo Lucas; the knife used to kill him came from this set.
• The Watson: The Trope Namer. Watson virtually never guesses what is going on or makes a correct deduction of his own, but instead serves to ask the reader's questions and make Holmes look good. Lampshaded by Holmes in "The Blanched Soldier".
  Holmes: A confederate who foresees your conclusions and course of action is always dangerous, but one to whom each development comes as a perpetual surprise, and to whom the future is always a closed book, is indeed an ideal helpmate.
  • It's possible Watson even writes things down differently from what actually happened in order to make a better story, something Holmes always reproaches him, but when he finally does it himself realizes Watson had a point.
• Weather Report Opening: In "The Five Orange Pips", Watson would like to make it very clear that it was a dark and stormy night in which only a truly desperate man would venture out to seek Holmes's help:
  It was in the latter days of September, and the equinoctial gales had set in with exceptional violence. All day the wind had screamed and the rain had beaten against the windows, so that even here in the heart of great, hand-made London we were forced to raise our minds for the instant from the routine of life and to recognise the presence of those great elemental forces which shriek at mankind through the bars of his civilisation, like untamed beasts in a cage. As evening drew in, the storm grew higher and louder, and the wind cried and sobbed like a child in the chimney. Sherlock Holmes sat moodily at one side of the fireplace cross-indexing his records of crime, while I at the other was deep in one of Clark Russell’s fine sea-stories until the howl of the gale from without seemed to blend with the text, and the splash of the rain to lengthen out into the long swash of the sea waves.
• We Help the Helpless: Holmes sells his services to anyone and everyone, from the poorest pawnbrokers to the wealthiest kings, in some cases even forgoing any recompense out of compassion for his client (and, in fact, it's revealed that Holmes' didn't need to work at all thanks to the generosity of his more wealthy customers from whom he had received more than enough compensation to retire whenever he wished). Helping some of his university classmates with their dilemmas inspired Holmes to do it for a living.
• We Would Have Told You, But...
  • Holmes has occasionally deceived Watson in order to trick his quarry. One prominent example is "The Dying Detective" — in order to maintain the ruse that he was deathly ill, he forbade Watson from examining him with the excuse that the disease in question was contagious by touch. As he later explained, he had little faith in Watson's ability to deceive others (he wanted Culverton Smith to believe Holmes was truly ill with the disease), but a good deal of respect for Watson's medical skills.
  • Holmes kept Watson in the dark for three years about surviving his encounter with Moriarty at Reichenbach Falls because he wished Watson to believe him dead so that a convincing narrative of his demise would be written. He also hesitated contacting Watson afterwards for fear that Watson's good nature and compassion would compel him to seek out his friend and inadvertently give the game away to Holmes' mortal enemies.
• Wham Line: The opening line of "The Final Problem":
  Watson: It is with a heavy heart that I take up my pen to write these the last words in which I shall ever record the singular gifts by which my friend, Mr. Sherlock Holmes, was distinguished.
• What Happened to the Mouse?:
  • The Baker Street Irregulars are called on in the first two novels, and are never seen again. The authorized pastiche The House of Silk endeavours to explain this.
  • Toby, the tracking dog who Holmes claimed to be more useful than all of Scotland Yard, was introduced in "The Sign of Four" and was never mentioned again. Another dog was used in "The Missing Three Quarter".
  • In "The Copper Beeches," we hear a certain amount about Mr. Rucastle's son, the unpleasant little boy who is Miss Hunter's charge as governess. But he's never actually portrayed, is nowhere to be found during the climax of the story (just as well for him, as his father tries to kill his half-sister and gets horribly maimed for his troubles), and no mention is made of him in the "Where Are They Now?" Epilogue. His only real functions are to provide a pretext to hire a governess and for his animal abuse to suggest his seemingly jovial father's depravity.
• What You Are in the Dark: In "The Adventure of the Abbey Grange", Holmes tells the killer Captain Croker that the police haven't figured everything out and offers to let him go. However Croker refuses, citing that his love Lady Brackenstall would be tried as accomplice in the death of her husband. This turns out to have been a Secret Test of Character by Holmes, which is enough to acquit him in Holmes' Kangaroo Court.
• "Where Are They Now?" Epilogue: At the end of "The Adventure of the Copper Beeches", Watson tells us that Mr. Rucastle was an invalid for the rest of his life and that Violet Hunter got a successful start elsewhere. Other stories also have one or two paragraphs about what happened to key figures in them (others have a throwaway line at the beginning saying said figures are dead, so their story can now be made available to the public).
• White-and-Grey Morality: In "A Scandal In Bohemia", "The Man with the Twisted Lip", "The Noble Bachelor", "The Crooked Man" and "The Yellow Face", it is revealed that there is no villain, and the apparent victim turns out to be the morally gray character.
  • "A Scandal in Bohemia": The king claims that Irene Adler is planning on ruining his upcoming wedding, but Adler herself gets married not long after he engages Holmes' services. She leaves behind a note saying the king needn't fear her doing anything, but she's keeping the photo as insurance against any action taken against her in the future.
  • "The Man With the Twisted Lip": The "victim" was never murdered. He was concealing a double life as a beggar. He never intended to hurt his wife and in fact was trying to protect his family from the scandal.
  • "The Noble Bachelor": Lord St. Simon, unbeknownst to him, married a woman who had previously been married and had agreed to the match after thinking herself widowed. Her husband turned up at the wedding and her disappearance afterwards was her own doing. She apologizes to Lord St. Simon, who is royally miffed.
  • "The Yellow Face": The secret was that Effie had a biracial daughter from a previous marriage.
  • "The Crooked Man": The victim died of natural causes after being confronted by the victim of a crime he committed thirty years before.
• Whole Episode Flashback: "The Adventure of the Musgrave Ritual" and "The Adventure of the Gloria Scott" have Holmes recounting cases from before he met Watson.
• The Wicked Stage: In the story A Scandal in Bohemia, the titular detective is hired by a foreign king to find and steal the evidence of the king's scandalous love affair in case it gets used for blackmail. What makes the affair scandalous is, of course, that it was with an opera singer - a profession only one step at most above actress (Watson's first line calls her "of questionable repute").
• Wife-Basher Basher: The true killer in The Abbey Grange, which leads Holmes to let him go after he confesses privately and offers to face arrest if it would protect the woman he had been defending.
• Wistful Smile: in "The Adventure of the Cardboard Box", is able to break in on Watson's thoughts, in part because of Watson's own wistful smile.
  Holmes: Your hand stole towards your own old wound and a smile quivered on your lips, which showed me that the ridiculous side of this method of settling international questions had forced itself upon your mind.
• With Great Power Comes Great Responsibility: John Watson noted this of Holmes:
  "So silent and furtive were his movements, like those of a trained bloodhound picking out a scent, that I could not but think what a terrible criminal he would have made had he turned his energy and sagacity against the law instead of exerting them in its defence."
• Worthy Opponent:
  • In The Adventures Of Sherlock Holmes, we have John Clay in The Red-Headed League, who is so hard to catch that he and Holmes never see each other until the story. This trope kicks in near the end — Clay outright praises Holmes for his arrangements and quick thinking, while Holmes compliments Clay for his excellent scheme and how close it came to succeeding. Furthermore, although Clay is outright rude to Inspector Jones, he bows to Holmes and Watson as he heads off to jail.
  • Irene Adler, the only woman to pwn Holmes to date. He always refers to her as "The Woman."
  • Also, Professor Moriarty: at their fateful last encounter, gentleman Moriarty lets Holmes write a farewell letter to Watson before starting their fight to the death, and Holmes knows he can trust Moriarty to wait patiently until the letter is finished and not to push him into the nearby falls while his attention is on the paper.
• Woman Scorned: Several cases depend on this.
  • "A Scandal in Bohemia": The king of Bohemia alleges that he fears Irene Adler will use the evidence of their affair to ruin his wedding because she doesn't want him married to another woman.
  • "The Adventure of the Cardboard Box": James Browner's sister-in-law Sarah was in love with him. Browner, being passionately in love with his wife, gently turned her down, and she turned her sister against him and got her involved with another man to get revenge on him.
• Year Zero: Holmes is revealed to be 60 years old during 1914 which effectively gave him a birth year (1854) and an age (27) during A Study in Scarlet (March 4, 1881).
  • Similarly, Watson's date of graduation from medical school (1878) gives him a birth year of either 1852 or 1853 and an age (probably 28, possibly 29) in A Study In Scarlet, assuming he did not take time off during his education.
• You Do Not Have to Say Anything: In "The Norwood Builder" Lestrade tells a suspect that “I am bound to warn him that anything he may say will appear in evidence against him.” In "The Dancing Men" another policeman reads the same warning to a suspect.
• You Have Waited Long Enough: In "The Adventure Of the Noble Bachelor", a woman vanished immediately after her wedding. Holmes speaks of recognizing it from comparison with past cases, and tracks down the bride and her first husband, whom she had just learned was still alive.
• You Make Me Sick: Oddly, in Holmes' brief Take That! review of Monsieur Lecoq, the 1868 detective novel by Émile Gaboriau: "That book made me positively ill."

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