Year 8 donned their metaphorical deerstalkers this month, and began their investigations into the world of detective fiction in English literature, looking at its earliest examples which defined its conventions. They began by reading Edgar Allan Poe’s The Murders in the Rue Morgue, the first short story of detective fiction, which introduced us to an idiosyncratic detective, incompetent police, a trusty sidekick, red herrings, a list of possible suspects and the dramatic denouement which would influence Victorian sensation of Wilkie Collins, whose Moonstone they had read over the summer.
Their work included deduction, reasoning, inference and creativity, as they recorded witness statements, analysed crime scenes and hypothesised on probable suspects.
After studying Poe’s short story, they have now embarked on a novel involving almost everyone’s favourite detective: Sherlock Holmes in The Hound of the Baskervilles by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. We have only recently begun, but one person has just died, while another is in mortal danger (in the book, of course).
Only Sherlock Holmes, with his famous deductive reasoning can save the day, but his Acorn House Irregulars will be beside him every step of the way. Little do they know that some of the work they do in science with Mr Stonemason will help them understand the resolution of the case…
