‘The Five Orange Pips’
Re-Imagined
In this fifth adventure, John Openshaw visits Baker
Street to consult Sherlock Holmes as to the mysterious deaths of both his uncle
and father upon the arrival of letters containing five dried orange pips and
bearing the mark “K.K.K.”. The young gentleman further relates that he too has
received a similar envelope with instructions to surrender some papers. Holmes
quickly deduces that his client faces imminent danger from a secret society in
America.
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| “Shook out five little dried orange pips.” |
The death of clients
This adventure, which Conan Doyle ranked seventh in
a list of his twelve favourite Sherlock Holmes stories, is notable as
the client of the Great Detective is murdered after seeking his help. Although
Holmes appreciates the seriousness of the situation for his client upon hearing
the details of the case, he underestimates the urgency of the matter. In fact,
Holmes instructs his client to return home to carry out the demands of the
secret organization threatening his life, while the detective remains at Baker
Street to mull over the facts of the case, at which time his client is
murdered. A similar fate befalls another of Holmes’s clients in ‘The Adventure
of the Dancing Men’, which I hope will be the next story to be published in the Sherlock Holmes Re-Imagined book series.
In that adventure, Holmes does not directly accompany his client to the
latter’s Norfolk home after hearing the facts bearing on the case, although in
this instance the detective lacks sufficient information to take immediate
action. When Holmes finally can act it is too late as his client has already
been murdered. As an aside, it is interesting to note that in both of the cases
mentioned above, garden sundials feature as the location of the exchange of
information between Holmes’s clients and their eventual killers.
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| “Holmes, I cried, you are too late.” |
As much of the action of ‘The Five Orange Pips’,
besides for recollections by their client, takes place in the Baker Street
residence of Holmes and Watson, rendering the Sidney Paget illustrations in
LEGO® required designing and building furniture that is to the scale of the minifigures.
As can be seen in the photos above, LEGO® minifigures do not possess
normal human body proportions but rather are quite short and squat. Because of
this, and given the average size of LEGO® bricks and pieces, it can be somewhat
difficult to create furniture and other accessories that are appropriately
sized. The table and chair in the above photo were used in several earlier
adventures, but for the current story I had to design a couple of other tables as
well as an umbrella and two oil lamps, including the one in the first
illustration above.
Can I see more information about your book series?
All 12 books in The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes Re-Imagined book series, as well as a complete collector’s edition incorporating all of the stories, are available for purchase on Amazon UK, the Book Depository (with free worldwide delivery), and the MX Publishing website.
LEGO® is a trademark of the LEGO Group of Companies. The LEGO Group has not been involved in nor has it in any other way licensed or authorized the publication of this book series.
