Mystery Collection Discussion Questions

Select a story to view the corresponding discussion questions

A Mystery With a Moral

Letter to Sura

Tales of Treasure

The Adventure of the Three Robbers

The Comedy at Fountain Cottage

The Deposition

The Mystery of the Semi-Detached

The Signalman

The Tragedy at Brookbend Cottage

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A Mystery With a Moral

1. Have you ever artfully used flattery to get something you need? Did it make you feel bad after, the way the main character feels after a few weeks of flattering his way through France?
2. What is the mystery in this story?
3. What is the moral?

Letter to Sura

1. The title of the story is "Letter to Sura." Based on what you have heard and/or read, who is Sura?
2. Let’s assume ghosts and phantoms are real. Would you be like Athenodorus and seek out the ghost, or someone who tried to avoid ghosts at all costs?
3. The main instance of ghostly occurrence in this story presents the ghost sympathetically, simply needing help to have his soul put to rest. How are ghosts portrayed in our society?

Tales of Treasure

1. What do these 3 short stories have in common?
2. If you came upon a large fortune, like winning the lottery, for example, would you be able to stay quiet about it?
3. Can you think of any other pursuit (besides the pursuit of money) that can so completely corrupt people?

The Adventure of the Three Robbers

1. Did you expect the story to end the way it did?
2. When does this story take place? What details support your assertion?
3. The God of Laughter sounds like a God that could be useful to a community, in bringing it together in mirth. What other Gods could our society use?

The Comedy at Fountain Cottage

1. After reading this story, can you explain why the neighbor was throwing stewed kidneys into the Bellmarks' garden?
2. Where would you hide something valuable?
3. Many references are made to Max Carrados' blindness in the story. Are there any reasons to think he isn’t blind?

The Deposition

1. Describe the evolution of what we learn about the barber's relationship with Don Nicasio's wife.
2. Several times in the story, we are told that Passion leads men into all sorts of folly. Do you think passion is a more powerful driver in humans than reason and intellect?
3. Does the barber deserve to go to the gallows?

The Mystery of the Semi-Detached

1. How could the young man have seen into the future? Could it have been intuition? A vision? Do you believe in that sort of extrasensory perception?
2. Thinking back, can you recall reading about or witnessing any crimes that have stuck with you or that have been memorialized, like as in the book In Cold Blood?
3. What do you think happened to the semi-detached house after the stockbroker's daughter's murder?

The Signalman

1. Do you believe that sometimes coincidences happen, or do you believe that everything happens for a reason?
2. There is plenty of foreshadowing of more disaster to come in the story. Did you expect it to happen to the signal man?
3. If you had to work in the signal man's bleak, solitary conditions, how would you fare mentally or emotionally? Psychologically?

The Tragedy at Brookbend Cottage

1. What happened to Mrs. Creake at the end of the story?
2. Describe the Creakes' relationship. Can you explain why Millicent Creake wouldn't leave her husband after she discovered he was trying to poison her?
3. Do Max Carrados and Mr. Carlyle remind you of any other detectives? How so?