The Five Orange Pips
A series of deaths follows envelopes containing five orange pips marked 'K.K.K.' Holmes races a transatlantic conspiracy reaching back to the American South.
The bleakest of the early stories and the smallest cast in the catalogue: four voices, one of which is a young man who does not survive the night. John Openshaw comes to Baker Street with an envelope of orange pips and a family history of sudden deaths, Holmes sends him home, and the story ends with Holmes having failed. Most of the running time is Openshaw talking and Holmes listening, so almost everything rests on whether those two voices sit differently in the ear — one frightened and hurrying, the other slowing him down.
The voices that carry it
John Openshaw is the recording. He speaks more than Holmes does, and the performance keeps his account nervous rather than dramatic, so that Holmes's calm reads as a mistake rather than reassurance.
Chapter one plays without an account. Start listening to The Five Orange Pips.
Voice cast
3 characters plus the narrator, each with their own voice. All the voices of The Five Orange Pips.
- Sherlock Holmes — The world's only consulting detective. Razor-sharp analytical mind, cold precision, theatrical wit. Alternates between lethargy and explosive energy. Speaks in crisp, certain pronouncements.
- Dr. Watson — Holmes's loyal friend and biographer. A former army surgeon, warm, practical, earnest. Speaks with admiration for Holmes and genuine concern for clients.
- John Openshaw — A frightened young client in The Five Orange Pips. Receives mysterious warnings and appeals desperately to Holmes before meeting a tragic fate.
Chapters
- Chapter V: The Five Orange Pips
About this recording
Why is this Holmes story so short?
It is one of the tightest Doyle wrote, at about forty minutes: a single client interview, one piece of research, and a conclusion that arrives too late. The brevity is the point — Holmes does not get another chance.
Does Holmes solve the case?
He identifies the killers, but not in time to save his client, and the sea takes them before the law does. It is one of the few stories in the canon that Doyle allows to end in failure.