15. Dr. Watson did not narrate all of the stories
In the 62 Sherlock Holmes stories considered by devotees to form his official canon, Dr. Watson narrates all but three. Two of the latter are recounted by Holmes himself. In October, 1926, the first of these, The Adventure of the Blanched Soldier, appeared. Holmes investigates what turns out to be a medical problem, which would seem to have been more in the purview of his absent friend and partner. Doyle set the story in 1903. It first appeared in the American magazine Liberty before its publication in The Strand Magazine the following month. Holmes relates in the story that Watson was involved in another case, “described as that of the Abbey school”.
Another story told by Holmes occurs during his retirement in Sussex. Watson does not appear in the story and the reader is told that the two meet occasionally on weekends. Holmes spends his time beekeeping. It is the only story in the entire canon in which a mortal injury is inflicted on a character which is not caused by human intervention. Instead, the culprit in death is determined to be a type of jellyfish. Holmes correctly identifies the killer in this last of the mysteries written by Arthur Conan Doyle, though there is no crime and no criminal to implicate. It too, first appeared in Liberty in November, 1926, a month before it appeared in The Strand.