sherlock60 | Canon Discussion: A Case of Identity

This week we’re having a look at A Case of Identity. I’ve typed up a few thoughts to get the discussion going—please leave your own ideas in the comments!

“...The crudest of writers could invent nothing more crude." Wanted: good beta reader. Apply ℅ 221B, Baker Street, London.

"This is the Dundas separation case, and, as it happens, I was engaged in clearing up some small points in connection with it.” Curious that Holmes should have been involved in what appears to be a straightforward case of domestic abuse. What do you think the “small points” were?

“It is a little souvenir from the King of Bohemia in return for my assistance in the case of the Irene Adler papers." Bit puzzling that Holmes should have accepted a costly gift from the King, when at the end of SCAN all he wants is Irene Adler’s photograph and he apparently despises his client a little. Also it’s a bit odd that he refers to the photograph as “papers”. (Though to be fair, the King refers to “papers” too, towards the end of SCAN.)

"It was from the reigning family of Holland, though the matter in which I served them was of such delicacy that I cannot confide it even to you…”

“...one rather intricate matter which has been referred to me from Marseilles…”

“I heard of you from Mrs. Etherege, whose husband you found so easy when the police and everyone had given him up for dead.” Any thoughts on these cases?

“I would give it all to know what has become of Mr. Hosmer Angel." It’s such an odd name—it practically shouts out that it’s fake. Why on earth did Windibank choose it? I sometimes wonder if there’s some kind of joke there.

“Mother was all in his favor from the first and was even fonder of him than I was.” It’s deeply discomforting that Miss Sutherland’s mother should have taken an active part in the deception. Any thoughts on the relationship between mother and daughter? "She was angry, and said that I was never to speak of the matter again." Could this have been genuine anger—directed at Windibank? Was she perhaps at last feeling guilty about the trick they played on her daughter, and wishing they hadn’t gone through with it?

A professional case of great gravity was engaging my own attention at the time, and the whole of next day I was busy at the bedside of the sufferer. Any thoughts on this? We don’t often hear about Watson’s own work.

"That fellow will rise from crime to crime until he does something very bad, and ends on a gallows.” Any thoughts on Windibank’s future schemes?

"And Miss Sutherland?" "If I tell her she will not believe me.” This is such a frustrating ending. Holmes may have solved the case but Windibank gets away without punishment. Not only that, he obtains the desired result from his plot. Miss Sutherland, and her money, will remain at the family home, waiting for Hosmer Angel to return. Surely Holmes has a moral and professional responsibility to his client. He says she won’t believe him, but shouldn’t he at least try to convince her?

Next Sunday, 1st March, we’ll having a look at The Boscombe Valley Mystery. Hope you can join us then.