The Red-Headed League

The Red-Headed League, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle.

This was the Sherlock Holmes story I red as a kid--it was in one of the big reading anthologies--issued by my school--that were hit or miss. Like so many things, I realize now that I read it without reading it. Spacing out as usual. Too bad they didn't have Ritalin when I was a kid!

Beginning a review with a personal anecdote...always professional.

A small business owner visits Sherlock Holmes and tells him an odd story: At the urging of his assistant, he answered an ad in a paper for a red-headed man. He was chosen, and was paid well to sit all day and copy entries from the encyclopedia. Then one day, the job--and the Red-Headed League--are gone without a trace.

Holmes realizes the assistant and the Red-Headed League man were in cahoots. They wanted to get the business owner out of his shop so that they could tunnel through to the bank, which had recently gotten a valuable shipment.

I love when there is a story within a story in Sherlock Holmes. More so than when he and Watson are chasing people or uncovering clues. Not sure why. I guess because the back stories have that air of a story that is supposed to be a secret. The kind where you think, "I can't believe you're telling me this," but say, "Go on. Go on."

Needless to say, Holmes and Watson catch the bad guys and remark that the business owner isn't the sharpest tool in the tunnel that his assistant was digging.

The verdict: How did Sir Arthur Conan Doyle come up with this stuff? Brilliant!