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"The Doctor's Case" is a short story written by Stephen King. It was originally published in the 1987 anthology The New Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, and later included in King's own 1993 collection Nightmares and Dreamscapes.

Summary[]

Dr. Watson narrates a heretofore unreleased case in which he and Sherlock Holmes are called by Inspector Lestrade on an unexpectedly rainy day to investigate the murder of a sadistic British lord named Hull in his study. Each member of his family - his wife and three sons - has reason to murder him; his wife had been hounded with constant abuse for the duration of their marriage; one son, an artistically-skilled (and bowlegged) youth, was the target of constant ire from his father for his unattractive appearance; another, the youngest, was the most intellectual and the most capable of maintaining his father's affairs, but was doomed to never receive more than a pittance, due to his placement in the family line.

Furthermore, in spite of his treatment of them his family had stayed with him in the hopes that Hull would die and leave them with his considerable wealth; however, they had recently learnt that Hull had rewritten his will so that none of them received a thing, and that all his wealth would go to a boarding-house for stray cats. Despite having ample motives to kill him, his family have effectively given each other alibis, and the murder itself is effectively a locked room mystery; there's no place in the crime scene for anyone to hide without being seen, and all the doors and windows were locked by the lord himself.

Audiobook[]

The audiobook version of this story, in the Nightmares and Dreamscapes collection, is read by Tim Curry, who played the "Pennywise the Dancing Clown" manifestation of the titular villain in the TV miniseries adaptation of IT.

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