Sherlock Holmes: Trifles: May 2026

Wednesday, May 27, 2026

Episode 491 – Holmesless in Aldershot

“To my astonishment it was Sherlock Holmes” [CROO]

What if we told you that Watson wasn't exactly honest with readers in "The Crooked Man"? That his telling of the tale masked that it was actually he, and not Sherlock Holmes, who solved the case.

John Rabe, son of old Irregular W.T. Rabe ("Colonel Warburton's Madness") questions Watson's version of "The Crooked Man" in Vol. 76, No. 1 of The Baker Street Journal. And it's just a Trifle.

If you have a question for us, please email us at trifles@ihearofsherlock.com. If you use your inquiry on the show, we'll send you a thank you gift.

Our Merch Store is open: Trifles mugs, notepads, and oval stickers can be yours (or someone else's, if you'd like to make it a gift). Start shopping today.

Don't sleep on "Trifling Trifles" — short-form content that doesn't warrant a full episode. We release these at the beginning of every month. The latest episode is "for those with ears attuned to catch the distant view-halloo!" This is a benefit exclusively for our paying subscribers.

Check it out (Patreon | Substack).

Leave Trifles a five-star rating on Apple Podcasts and Spotify; listen to this episode here or wherever you get podcasts

Download | 21.3 MB 22:58

Music credits

Performers: Uncredited violinist, US Marine Chamber Orchestra
Publisher Info.: Washington, DC: United States Marine Band.
Copyright: Creative Commons Attribution 3.0

Wednesday, May 20, 2026

Episode 490 – Entombment

Scott Monty 2:21 PM 0

“the business in the crypt” [SHOS]

If you experience claustrophobia, this may not be the episode for you. Because it's all about being shut up in close spaces. And it's the monthly "Mr. Sherlock Holmes the Theorist" episode.

Denise M. Rogers walks us through the gothic theme shared between Edgar Allan Poe and some of the Sherlock Holmes stories in her Baker Street Miscellanea article "Crypts, Secret Rooms and Subterranean Passageways: Entombment as a Motif in the Canon" from Spring 1990. It's just a Trifle.

If you have a question for us, please email us at trifles@ihearofsherlock.com. If you use your inquiry on the show, we'll send you a thank you gift.

Our Merch Store is open: Trifles mugs, notepads, and oval stickers can be yours (or someone else's, if you'd like to make it a gift). Start shopping today.

Check it out (Patreon | Substack).

Leave Trifles a five-star rating on Apple Podcasts and Spotify; listen to this episode here or wherever you get podcasts

Download | 21.3 MB 22:58

Music credits

Performers: Uncredited violinist, US Marine Chamber Orchestra
Publisher Info.: Washington, DC: United States Marine Band.
Copyright: Creative Commons Attribution 3.0

Wednesday, May 13, 2026

Episode 489 – Watson's Embellishments

Scott Monty 2:21 PM 0

“an exaggerated view of my scientific methods” [SUSS]

We consider Watson a reliable narrator. At least we hope he is. And yet there are a number of times when Sherlock Holmes accuses his Boswell of romanticizing the factual.

Is Holmes simply taking issue with how Watson writes with a more emotional and imaginative framework? Or is it possible that Watson was also exaggerating to make the stories more exciting? It's just a Trifle.

If you have a question for us, please email us at trifles@ihearofsherlock.com. If you use your inquiry on the show, we'll send you a thank you gift.

Our Merch Store is open: Trifles mugs, notepads, and oval stickers can be yours (or someone else's, if you'd like to make it a gift). Start shopping today.

Leave Trifles a five-star rating on Apple Podcasts and Spotify; listen to this episode here or wherever you get podcasts

Download | 27.9 MB 30:12

Music credits

Performers: Uncredited violinist, US Marine Chamber Orchestra
Publisher Info.: Washington, DC: United States Marine Band.
Copyright: Creative Commons Attribution 3.0

Wednesday, May 6, 2026

Episode 488 – The Wicked Beginnings of a Baker Street Classic

Scott Monty 2:21 PM 0

“the hidden wickedness” [COPP]

Vincent Starrett eventually became the dean of American Sherlockians, widely recognized as the foremost expert and significant collector, in part due to his publication of The Private Life of Sherlock Holmes in 1933. This month's Morley-Montgomery Award episode comes to us from Starrett expert Ray Betzner, BSI ("The Agony Column") from Vol. 57, No. 3 of The Baker Street Journal.

But before that book made its way to the public, a chapter appeared in a rather unusual place. For Starrett, who was accustomed to his Jimmy Lavender series appearing in, shall we say, less than family-friendly places, his Sherlock Holmes material appearing there must have been just a Trifle.

If you have a question for us, please email us at trifles@ihearofsherlock.com. If you use your inquiry on the show, we'll send you a thank you gift.

There's a new "Trifling Trifles" episode out — short-form content that doesn't warrant a full episode. We release these at the beginning of every month. The latest episode is "for those with ears attuned to catch the distant view-halloo!" This is a benefit exclusively for our paying subscribers. Check it out (Patreon | Substack).

Our Merch Store is now open: Trifles mugs, notepads, and oval stickers can be yours (or someone else's, if you'd like to make it a gift). Start shopping today.

Leave Trifles a five-star rating on Apple Podcasts and Spotify; listen to this episode here or wherever you get podcasts

Download | 25.6 MB 26:27

Music credits

Performers: Uncredited violinist, US Marine Chamber Orchestra
Publisher Info.: Washington, DC: United States Marine Band.
Copyright: Creative Commons Attribution 3.0