"It is nearly midnight, Watson . . ."

 Ah, midnight. That most magical of hours. The hands of the clock pointing directly to the heavens.

So much power in that one time of the night, beyond any other place on the clock, even over its twin, high noon. Is it frightening? Is it special in some other way? Let's look at it from the world of Holmes and Watson for a moment.

The very first instance we see it come into play is the mysterious narrator of that second part of A Study in Scarlet, who gives us, "Was it some midnight assassin who had come to carry out the murderous orders of the secret tribunal?" Midnight makes that assassin all the more eerie. And in that same tale, the conspirators do plan to act at midnight, "When the Whip-poor-Will calls three times." (What does that bird have against poor Will? There's a whole issue worth exploring.)

But let's get to actual Sherlock stuff! Irene Adler writes a letter to Sherlock Holmes and dates it at midnight. So Irene sat down and started her letter at midnight -- that's when you would date it, right? What does that say about her letter, drawn up in the "witching hour?" The final testament of her powers, even if they aren't properly supernatural, but it does add a little magic to it, doesn't it?

Midnight gets used as a reference point, things happen before and after. We have "midnight visitor" in both "Silver Blaze" and "Golden Pince-nez."  "Midnight drama" comes up in "Musgrave Ritual," and a "midnight tragedy" in "Abbey Grange." But those things that happen right at midnight . . . hmm.

Victor Hatherly says he is being summoned at midnight, but is he just over-dramatizing an 11:15 arrival and a ride to the house after, since at the telling he knows evil was afoot.

Midnight his where the kidnapping trap is set in "Priory School."

In "Beryl Coronet," midnight is the cut-off for Watson waiting up for Holmes -- Watson's bedtime. Maybe I'm biased from doing a Watsonian Weekly podcast each week, but I think that's my favorite discovery from this little midnight exploration. I know I'll sleep better at this midnight in a most Watson-ish fashion now.