Conan Doyle “The Adventure of the Blue Carbuncle”

　　Sharlock Holmes deduction is amazing. (which means how clever Conan Doyle is.) Just inspecting a mere hat, he deduces that the hat owner is: “intellectual; was well-to-do within the last three months; declined his fortune; his wife ceased to love him; has self-respect; leads a sedentary life; middle aged, has gas laid on his house.” 　　Except for the inferences, the plot which leads to the arrest of the thief of the Blue Cabuncle, a diamond, is not so attractive since the writer just follows the path that he has already laid. The reader may think it mysterious (and enjoys the mystery) to track back to the goal, but like Poe’s “The Gold Bug” it is not mysterious at all. 　　The point is how to set the goal. Once the goal is set, all you have to do is to put a clue here and another there. In putting the clues highly sophisticated skills are necessary but in general it may not be so difficult to write such a story. 　　Concretely speaking, A is the cause of B; B is the cause of C; C is the cause of D; and D is the cause of E. The reader is naturally shocked to find the relation between A and E when he/she first encounters the relation as in “The Adventure of the Blue Carbuncle” where Peterson finds a diamond in the goose. 　　A Japanese saying goes, “If the wind blows, okeya a cooper will earn.”