The Ever Howling Wind

"The Adventure of the Golden Pince-Nez."

When I find a passage in Conan Doyle that is almost word for word as we would have read it in Poul Anderson, I wonder whether Anderson had picked up this way of writing from Conan Doyle.

First, the scene setting:

"Outside the wind howled down Baker Street, while the rain beat fiercely against the windows." (p. 233)

But that wind goes further and seems to comment on the dialogue. While the young detective, Stanley Hopkins, recounts his baffling murder case to Holmes and Watson:

"'...this is the lad who has met his death this morning in the professor's study under circumstances which can point only to murder.'

"The wind howled and screamed at the windows. Holmes and I drew closer to the fire, while the young inspector slowly and point-by-point developed his singular narrative." (p. 236)

Hopkins' account continues but not before that howling, screaming wind has had its say. I had been trying to move away from Poul Anderson's works for the rest of this evening but that interruption to Hopkins' dialogue took me right back into them.

If you ever write a pastiche of either Holmes or Anderson, then you have got to include that wind.