The Curious Incident of Revenge: Guest Post By Kathleen Kaska & Quiz!

My guest-poster today is Kathleen Kaska. She writes the award-winning Sydney Lockhart Mystery Series, the Kate Caraway Animal-Rights Mystery Series, and the Mystery Trivia series, which includes The Sherlock Holmes Quiz Book published by Lyons Press. Her Holmes short story, “The Adventure at Old Basingstoke,” appears in Sherlock Holmes of BAKING Street, a Belanger Books anthology. She founded The Dogs in the Nighttime Sherlock Holmes Society, a scion of The Baker Street Irregulars. Her latest Sydney Lockhart mystery, Murder at the Pontchartrain, winner of the PenCraft Award for best mystery series, is set in New Orleans at the Pontchartrain Hotel. Kathleen is the winner of the Amity Literary Award for her novel, Death Without Dignity, scheduled for release in fall 2026. A Texan at heart, she will always be a Texan, even though she now lives in a small coastal town in the Pacific Northwest, where it’s cooler, and there is no traffic. Find more of her books at kathleenkaska.com. Take it away, Kathleen.

Fifteen years ago, after moving from Austin to Anacortes, Washington, I found myself missing the Sherlock Holmes gatherings I’d enjoyed as a member of the Waterloo Station Sherlock Holmes Society. So I did what any sensible Sherlockian might do: I started my own society.

What began with four people has grown to nearly fifty members, with just under twenty regularly attending our monthly meetings. We call ourselves The Dogs in the Nighttime, a name borrowed from Arthur Conan Doyle’s “The Adventure of Silver Blaze,” in which Holmes discusses a case with Inspector Gregory, to wit:

“[Gregory] Is there any point to which you would wish to draw my attention?

[Holmes] To the curious incident of the dog in the night-time.

[Gregory] The dog did nothing in the night-time.

[Holmes] That was the curious incident.”

Like many Holmes enthusiasts, I’m often asked when I first started reading the stories. Unlike most devotees, however, I didn’t discover Sherlock Holmes as a child—aside from The Hound of the Baskervilles. In fact, I might never have read the rest of the Canon at all, if not for a small act of revenge.

For years, a two-volume collection of Holmes stories sat untouched on my bookshelf. I’d “inherited” it from a college “friend” who lived with me briefly before I asked her to leave due to her increasingly irresponsible behavior. She departed without paying the rent she owed me, so I kept the books.

It wasn’t until much later, when I began writing mystery trivia, that those volumes finally caught my eye. My first book, The Agatha Christie Quiz Book, sold immediately, though I hadn’t intended to write a series. While looking for my next mystery trivia project, I picked up the Holmes collection. I was barely into “A Scandal in Bohemia” when I was completely hooked.

That discovery led to my second mystery trivia book, The Sherlock Holmes Quiz Book. The first edition appeared in 2000, followed by a second in 2012 and a third, updated edition in 2021.

Today, The Dogs in the Nighttime meet once a month to discuss everything Sherlock: Conan Doyle’s original stories and novels, Holmes pastiches, and film, television, and radio adaptations. I’m writing this on our fifteenth anniversary—which also happens to be Sherlock Holmes’s 171st birthday. This month, we’ll celebrate with pizza and cake while discussing “The Adventure of the Sussex Vampire.”

Our meetings are open to the public. If you find yourself in Anacortes on the first Wednesday of the month, join us at Village Pizza. And be sure to mark your calendar for the first Wednesday in October, when we perform a Sherlock Holmes radio play at the local library.

Elementary, my dear reader—I hope to see you there.

BONUS: How Well Do You Know Sherlock Holmes?

Rarely is there a person, young or old, who cannot instantly identify the man with chiseled features, wearing a deerstalker cap, puffing on a curved pipe, and staring intently through a magnifying lens as Sherlock Holmes. When the words “Elementary, my dear Watson” are spoken, no explanation of the phrase’s origin or meaning is necessary. Even if one has never seen the film or read the story, everyone knows that The Hound of the Baskervilles is a spine-chilling mystery featuring the world’s greatest detective.

Test your knowledge on these twelve trivia Sherlock Holmes facts.

What is the name of Sherlock Holmes’ older brother?

1. Godfrey
2. Hogarth
3. Mycroft
4. Felix

What musical instrument does Holmes play?

1. flute
2. piano
3. trumpet
4. violin

Who is Holmes’ archenemy?

1. James Moriarity
2. Arthur Conan Doyle
3. Queen Victoria
4. Jack the Ripper

What is the name of the young street gang that Holmes uses to help with the investigation?

1. The Back Alley Boys
2. The Baker Street Irregulars
3. The Speckled Band
4. The Street Urchins

What term did Holmes use for his London hideouts where he kept disguises?

1. mouse caves
2. secret closets
3. bolt holes
4. private chambers

For which branch of science does Holmes have a passion?

1. biology
2. archaeology
3. zoology
4. chemistry

What are Holmes’ first words to Dr. Watson?

1. “You must be a medical doctor?”
2. “You’ve just come from the Turkish baths.”
3. “How are you? You have been in Afghanistan, I perceive.”
4. “I see you own a nervous bulldog.”

Of which beverage does Holmes drink large quantities?

1. tea
2. coffee
3. red wine
4. gin & tonic

Which section of the newspaper does Holmes peruse daily, looking for clues?

1. obits
2. agony column
3. wants ads
4. comics

How many steps lead from the outer hall of Holmes’ house on Baker Street to his room?

1. seventeen
2. twelve
3. thirty-nine
4. ten

Sir Arthur Conan Doyle and Sherlock Holmes Trivia Facts

Did you know . . .

1. Conan Doyle never had Holmes smoke a calabash pipe or wear a deerstalker cap. Those signature items were added in later adaptations.
2. Conan Doyle’s initial name for his detective was Sherrinford Holmes.
3. The idea of ending Holmes’s life in a tumble over Reichenbach Falls was conceived during Conan Doyle and his wife’s visit to the falls while they were vacationing in Switzerland.
4. When Conan Doyle killed off Sherlock Holmes, 20,000 disappointed readers of The Strand Magazine, the publication that serialized the Holmes stories, canceled their subscriptions.
5. The Hound of the Baskerville has been adapted into more than three dozen feature films, TV movies, radio programs, and plays.

Answers to the quiz:

1. c – Mycroft Holmes
2. d – violin
3. a – Professor Moriarty
4. b – The Baker Street Irregulars
5. c – bolt holes
6. d – chemistry
7. c – “How are you? You have been in Afghanistan, I perceive.”
8. b – coffee
9. b – the agony columns
10. a – seventeen