The Red Circle
Jun. 10th, 2018 12:30 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
alafaye posting in ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png){kind=small}
sherlock60This week we are reading The Red Circle.
We open with Holmes initially dismissing a case, but he is won over according to Watson by a sense of kindness. A landlady who had a lodger helped by Holmes is in need of help herself, this time with a new lodger. The gentleman who asked for it offered more than asked -- five pounds a week -- just a few requests; a key to the house, to not be disturbed. The land lady brings up the meals and leaves them on a tray when a bell rings; she picks up the tray when the food is done. The lodger requests items by leaving printed words and never leaves except at night. His only occupation seems to be pacing, day in and day out. Holmes dismisses the case as trivial, but agrees to keep his mind on the matter.
Especially as he finds in the agony column of the Gazette messages left that could only be communication to the lodger.
A few days pass when a new message appears, appointing a time that night. In the same morning, the land lady returns to announce that her husband has been accosted in the street. Holmes deduces that whoever did the accosting, suspected that the husband had been the lodger and hadn't brought him to harm when they realized the mistake.
Holmes and Watson go the home and the house across from it matches the meeting mentioned in the paper. During the day, they spy on the lodger -- discovering it is a woman! And so deepens the mystery. That night, watching the meeting house they see a candle being used as a signal which is interrupted. Holmes and Watson meet up with Gregson and an American on the trail of a gang leader who had committed several murders (the number is stated at 50).
An investigation of the signal room reveals a murder and the lodger across from the street names the body. As it turned out her husband had been chosen by the gang leader to kill his benefactor and had also made advances to the lodger. She and her husband had been on the run, but now with the murder were free.
Thoughts?
We open with Holmes initially dismissing a case, but he is won over according to Watson by a sense of kindness. A landlady who had a lodger helped by Holmes is in need of help herself, this time with a new lodger. The gentleman who asked for it offered more than asked -- five pounds a week -- just a few requests; a key to the house, to not be disturbed. The land lady brings up the meals and leaves them on a tray when a bell rings; she picks up the tray when the food is done. The lodger requests items by leaving printed words and never leaves except at night. His only occupation seems to be pacing, day in and day out. Holmes dismisses the case as trivial, but agrees to keep his mind on the matter.
Especially as he finds in the agony column of the Gazette messages left that could only be communication to the lodger.
A few days pass when a new message appears, appointing a time that night. In the same morning, the land lady returns to announce that her husband has been accosted in the street. Holmes deduces that whoever did the accosting, suspected that the husband had been the lodger and hadn't brought him to harm when they realized the mistake.
Holmes and Watson go the home and the house across from it matches the meeting mentioned in the paper. During the day, they spy on the lodger -- discovering it is a woman! And so deepens the mystery. That night, watching the meeting house they see a candle being used as a signal which is interrupted. Holmes and Watson meet up with Gregson and an American on the trail of a gang leader who had committed several murders (the number is stated at 50).
An investigation of the signal room reveals a murder and the lodger across from the street names the body. As it turned out her husband had been chosen by the gang leader to kill his benefactor and had also made advances to the lodger. She and her husband had been on the run, but now with the murder were free.
Thoughts?
