Discussion Post: The Adventure of the Red Circle

[spacemutineer.livejournal.com]

We are cruising along through 60 cases here at sherlock60! Now onto number 36: The Adventure of the Red Circle. What did you all think? As always, I have a few questions and thoughts of my own for the story -- please add your own!

- Lestrade may get all the attention by fandom, but let's hear it for Gregson, who is cool as a cucumber here. He is all bravery and business here, taking the lead without blinking and treating Emilia Lucca exactly like any other suspect. Very cool. And he keeps Holmes around when they come upon each other -- he's smart enough to know it's always good to have Holmes around on a case. Good man!

- It's funny how Holmes ends up backing into this case. The minor rental dispute Mrs. Warren shows up with is vastly different than the mafia related killing that ends the story. He has no idea he's actually dealing with Black Gorgiano of the infamous Red Circle, but he recognizes the name instantly when Mr. Leverton mentions him. Of course, by then, Gorgiano is already dead. I kind of liked it though, honestly -- Holmes and Gregson each have half the story. Together, the case comes together.

- Pinkerton's was a real detective agency in America, and very powerful in its heyday. According to Wikipedia, "Pinkerton's agents performed services ranging from security guarding to private military contracting work. At its height, the Pinkerton National Detective Agency employed more agents than there were members of the standing army of the United States of America. Pinkerton was the largest private law enforcement organization in the world at the height of its power." Pinkerton's National Detective Agency became well-known for union busting, and today lives on as Pinkerton Consulting and Investigations, a division of the Swedish security company Securitas AB.

- At the end of this case, everyone seems sure that Gennaro Lucca is going to have no trouble with the law for killing Gorgiano. Certainly, Gorgiano was a villain and seemingly no one will mourn his passing. But it seems like Gennaro at least has to stand trial even if it was self-defense, don't you think?

- The code with the candle in the window is a real problem from a logic perspective. If A=1 and B=2, that actually could be either the English or Italian alphabet. But Holmes deciphers it correctly with T=20, which means it's the English alphabet being used to form Italian words. Both the sender and the recipient are Italian. Doesn't it make more sense for them to use the Italian alphabet for messages sent in that language? So the question is, did the Luccas really have a reason to use a code like this, or did Watson (or Doyle) get it wrong?

- Finally, any idea why Watson seems to try to talk Holmes out of the case midway through? "Why should you go further in it? What have you to gain from it?" he says, just as the details start to come together into something truly interesting. Seems odd from him.

Comments

[thesmallhobbit.livejournal.com]

Gregson is great - I particularly like the way that he won't let the Pinkerton man go first, because "London dangers were the privilege of the London force".

As for the code, apart from the question as to which alphabet was used, it seems an extremely time consuming and quite possibly open to misinterpretation, way to convey a message. Especially with three Ts. The message might have ended prematurely because the candle had burnt down.

[wytchcroft.livejournal.com]

i never quite believed in the code either; maybe it was supposed to amateurish? But even so...

anyway, i like the story always seems of a piece with Valley of Fear - and yes, Gregson's finest moment.