Shouldn't this be
"Even the smallest subordination means the direst of consequences."

I've got one of those boxes. I bought it because it had the three Godfather videos in it. But oh, my—the rest.

So, no one wants to send him books?

And then there's The Murder of Roger Ackroyd, which surprises the hell out of most people, the first time they read it. No spoilers from me.

I didn't like it.

The second wife was inflatable.

Peter Lorre, I would be honored to be the friend of one of the greatest actors of all time.

Vic Hugo. Nice.

Allow me to suggest The Mysterious Flame of Queen Loana. It's one of those books—when I got near the end, I put it down for months because I just couldn't bear what was going to happen.

Pants roles.
Holmes loves Wagner, which I think is a nice touch.

I think Merrison played with two Watsons, Andrew Sachs and Michael Williams. Sachs also played Father Brown, the Chesterton sleuth (he he—love that word), and Williams played George Crabbe, a crime reporter.
Among lots of other roles, but those two are detective-related.

They're made for each other, then?

One thing not mentioned
The Sherlock Holmes stories were a great influence on police work; most people seem to forget this. Aside from the fun factor, this is probably the most important effect of the stories.

"The Italian Secretary" is okay. Not bad, and better than some of the others.

It was my gateway to Umberto Eco.

How about Young Sherlock Holmes, with Holmes as a boy still in school?

Or they're gullible and easy to exploit. It's all a matter of interpretation.

Watson did marry and remarry. Back then, a woman's life expectancy was about mid-40s, so it was normal for a man to lose one or two wives before he died.

The comparison to Catwoman isn't apt.

Doyle "wanted to be a novelist"?