When halves of clues are properly matched, each clue will contain an extra bigram and an extra word. The latter come from the Adventures of Sherlock Holmes in a sequence, which provides an ordering for the clues. First and last letters of the answers to the clues spell out two solutions to the puzzle, TOLLBAR and SHEIKHS, and the bigrams in clue order spell four more, TORS, LATE, BUCK, and RATS.
| First Half of Clue | Second Half of Clue | Answer | Wordplay | Extra Word | Sherlock Holmes Story | Extra Bigram |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| PS: Racy sex [scandal] mussed | item once displayed by comic book [TO]ads (1-3 5) | XRAYSPECS | PSRACYSEX anagram | SCANDAL | 1. A SCANDAL IN BOHEMIA | TO |
| [Red-headed] twin, teeth misaligned, getting | te[RS]e vis-à-vis other letters (9) | TWENTIETH | TWINTEETH anagram | RED-HEADED | 2. THE RED-HEADED LEAGUE | RS |
| [LA]shed (i.e., not arranged) | like something that's served [identity] separately (2 3 4) | ONTHESIDE | SHEDIENOT anagram | IDENTITY | 3. A CASE OF IDENTITY | LA |
| A cub's [valley] lair disturbed | hoo[TE]d in The Godfather (4 5) | LUCABRASI | ACUBSLAIR anagram | VALLEY | 4. THE BOSCOMBE VALLEY MYSTERY | TE |
| Reveal confidential information, including failing tri[BU]te, just about | is "a petiole with [orange] foliage" (9) | LEAFSTALK | LEAK holding F + STAL[e] | ORANGE | 5. THE FIVE ORANGE PIPS | BU |
| Foremost of butchers plu[CK]s bird's read, going in with | range of [twisted] frequencies (9) | BANDWIDTH | B + AND + WITH holding [bir]D | TWISTED | 6. THE MAN WITH THE TWISTED LIP | CK |
| Cat's ti[RA]de's | means of proving something's [blue] quality (4 5) | ACIDTESTS | CASTSTIDE anagram | BLUE | 7. THE BLUE CARBUNCLE | RA |
| "Obnoxiously text run[TS]!" Al's | clothing [band] leased for a prom (6 3) | RENTALTUX | TEXTRUNAL anagram | BAND | 8. THE SPECKLED BAND | TS |