vivdunstan

Resuming this marathon reread now, with another story in the Memoirs collection.

I didn't remember this story from previous rereads at all. It's a fairly simple tale, of a mysterious job offering, hidden identity and theft. It shares many elements with other Holmes stories, not least "The Red-Headed League".

In presentation it's rather simplistic for a Holmes story, with a largely sequential set of actions. A clerk is tempted away from a safe job offer, only to find himself caught up in odd goings on in Birmingham. The clue of an unusual gold filled tooth makes him realise that two different people are the same man. And he then brings Holmes - and Watson - in to help solve the case.

What is perhaps most shocking is when the criminal tries to hang himself. This is quite horrifically described, and I would have thought I'd remember this at least. Even Holmes is shocked here.

In the end the criminal scheme has failed, the theft of securities at a financial institution has failed, and the reader can rest easy that justice has been done. Albeit with a dead security guard - gruesomely killed as well - and that lingering image of an attempted hanging ...