Sherlock Holmes

Sherlock Holmes is, of course, the well-known fictional 19th century private detective created by Arthur Conan Doyle. Agatha Christie's works make occasional references to Sherlock Holmes or to Conan Doyle.

References to Sherlock Holmes in the works of Agatha Christie

 * The Affair of the Pink Pearl - Tommy tries to pick up a violin but makes a racket which causes Tuppence to yell in agony. Later, after a failed deduction about a bus ticket, Tommy decides he needs practice to emulate Holmes's style so he decides to emulate the style of Dr Thorndyke for this case.
 * Finessing the King/The Gentleman Dressed in Newspaper - Tommy brought the tips of his figures together "in the most approved Sherlock Holmes fashion". However he decides to emulate the style of another detective again.
 * The Case of the Missing Lady - Tommy makes a number of successful deductions and is encouraged. He says this is a decidedly Sherlock Holmes case. He points to the similarities to The Disappearance of Lady Frances Carfax.
 * The Ambassador's Boots - Tommy mentions the anecdote about parsley sinking into butter on a hot day. This is an anecdote mentioned by Watson in The Six Napoleons but which presumably he had not written up into a story. Tommy hopes Watson would "disinter it from his notebook one of these days".
 * Murder in the Mews - Poirot doesn't smell any cigarette smoke in the room. He likens this to the "curious incident of the dog in the night-time".
 * The Flock of Geryon - Emily Carnaby teaches her dog Augustus a trick called "die for Sherlock Holmes".
 * The Apples of the Hesperides - Inspector Wagstaffe suggests that the stolen goblet could have been hidden somewhere but Poirot counters that unlike in the case which involved the bust of Napoleon, a goblet is much larger than a pearl.
 * The Clocks - Poirot speaks highly of The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes. To him the stories of Sherlock Holmes are "in reality far-fetched, full of fallacies and most artificially contrived" but they show Conan Doyle's mastery of the art of the writing, "The pleasure of the language, the creation above all of that magnificent character, Dr Watson."