This is probably one of my least favorite canon stories, for reasons you touch upon here.
First, there's that name. Hosmer Angel? It fairly screams "fake name", and foreshadows the "twist" at the end, so much so that I figured out the solution before it was revealed. That's not as satisfying as one might think! Why did ACD chose it when a more generic name would have sufficed and would have better obfuscated things? (At least the target wasn't tipped off. She's obviously the more trusting sort!)
I thought, perhaps, it might be an anagram (for no reason other than I love anagrams) and spent some time trying to puzzle it out. First I noticed how close "Hosmer" is to "Holmes". Drop the "r", and take the "l" from "Angel" and you have it! That leaves "range". "Holmes' range"? Might there be a sly, self-referential joke in there? Other iterations are "shame longer", and "Homer snag el". Those sound rather sinister, and might be telling us something about the sham's intent (if you ignore the tortured French in the second one.) Then there's "heron gleams", which probably reveals nothing about the case but is my personal favorite. It sounds so poetic. ;)
Well, that exercise was fairly inconclusive, actually. But it was a fun way to pass some time on vacation. :-p
Then there's that ending. How unsatisfying! Holmes is often disinclined to wrap things up the way society expects him to (such as in BLUE when he doesn't send the thief to jail), but really, not to report the facts of the case to his client seems odd, and as you mention, unprofessional. Just because she'll ignore them (and why is he so sure of this--suddenly he's an expert on women?) doesn't mean he should just drop the whole thing. It didn't sit well with me.
Oh, well. With 56 short stories (and four novels), you can't expect them all to be dazzling!
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timeasmymeasure
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Date: 2014-07-20 03:05 pm (UTC)First, there's that name. Hosmer Angel? It fairly screams "fake name", and foreshadows the "twist" at the end, so much so that I figured out the solution before it was revealed. That's not as satisfying as one might think! Why did ACD chose it when a more generic name would have sufficed and would have better obfuscated things? (At least the target wasn't tipped off. She's obviously the more trusting sort!)
I thought, perhaps, it might be an anagram (for no reason other than I love anagrams) and spent some time trying to puzzle it out. First I noticed how close "Hosmer" is to "Holmes". Drop the "r", and take the "l" from "Angel" and you have it! That leaves "range". "Holmes' range"? Might there be a sly, self-referential joke in there? Other iterations are "shame longer", and "Homer snag el". Those sound rather sinister, and might be telling us something about the sham's intent (if you ignore the tortured French in the second one.) Then there's "heron gleams", which probably reveals nothing about the case but is my personal favorite. It sounds so poetic. ;)
Well, that exercise was fairly inconclusive, actually. But it was a fun way to pass some time on vacation. :-p
Then there's that ending. How unsatisfying! Holmes is often disinclined to wrap things up the way society expects him to (such as in BLUE when he doesn't send the thief to jail), but really, not to report the facts of the case to his client seems odd, and as you mention, unprofessional. Just because she'll ignore them (and why is he so sure of this--suddenly he's an expert on women?) doesn't mean he should just drop the whole thing. It didn't sit well with me.
Oh, well. With 56 short stories (and four novels), you can't expect them all to be dazzling!