Sherlock Holmes

Todman, Lee, Manson, Shuman, Van Deher, Atwood, James Stanger,
Judge Lynch, Gower, Mansel,Arthur Willaby, Reilly, Evans Pott, Lawler,
Andrews, Charlie Williams, Simon Bird, Jack Knox, Herman Strauss,
Josiah H Dunn, Menzies, William Hales, Manders, Hunt, Evans, Mrs
Larbey, Jenkins brothers, James Murdoch, Staphouse and Stendal fami-
lies, Birdy Edwards, Lander, Egan, Crabbe, Carter, Steve Wilson.
Locations: 221B Baker Street, Birlstone Manor House, Sussex;
Westville Arms, Birlstone; Birlstone police station; Hales Lodge,
Hampstead; Eagle Commercial hotel,Tunbridge Wells; Vermissa Valley,
North America; Sheridan Street, Vermissa Valley; McGinty’s saloon;
Lake Saloon, Market Street, Chicago; Widow MacNamara’s,Vermissa;
Union House, Vermissa; Vermissa Herald office; Miller Hill, police
depot; Hobson’s Patch; Crow Hill; Stake Royal, Gilmerton; house at
Iron Dyke crossroads.
Holmes: Does not make friends easily. Is immune to the shock
of a murder, although it does fire his intellectual capabilities –
he lives for a new case. Adores genuine admiration. Enjoys
toast and eggs. Is an adherent of genius loci, the idea that a place
has a characteristic atmosphere or guardian spirit. Admits that
the artist within him enjoys a well-staged performance.
Moriarty: Author of The Dynamics of an Asteroid, a book appar-
ently immune to scientific criticism. Has met with Inspector
MacDonald and explained how eclipses occur. Has a thin face
and grey hair. Talks in a solemn, fatherly manner. Owns a
painting by Jean-Baptiste Greuze (1725–1805) – a suspiciously
expensive acquisition given his £700 salary. He is compared
with Jonathan Wild, the eighteenth century ‘thief taker’ who
controlled London’s criminal underworld like a business
S H E R L O C K H O L M E S
• 88 •

---

venture (and was later immortalised as Mr Peachum in John
Gay’s  The Beggar’s Opera). His younger brother is a station-
master in the west of England. Employs petty criminals to do
his dirty work, with Moran his second in command (whom he
pays more than the prime minister). Probably holds 20 bank
accounts to disguise the extent of his ill-gotten wealth.
Quotable Quotes: (Macdonald) ‘I don’t take much stock of detec-
tives in novels – chaps that do things and never let you see how
they do them.That’s just inspiration, not business.’
(Holmes) ‘Breadth of view… is one of the essentials of our
profession. The interplay of ideas and the oblique uses of
knowledge are often of extraordinary interest.’
Problems: A sawn-off shotgun is very inaccurate over any great
distance, so would have made a poor outdoor weapon. In the
initiation ceremony, the cause (and subsequent disappearance)
of the sharp points on McMurdo’s eyes is never explained.
Names are fluid in this story: the three Johns (Douglas,
McMurdo and McGinty) are often called Jack, while McGinty
is variously referred to as John, Jack, Black Jack, Boss and
Bodymaster. If Holmes has successfully kept the true nature of
the crime private, why then is Douglas followed to South
Africa? Watson here knows of Moriarty (the impression is that
Holmes has spoken many times of him), yet in the chronolog-
ically later The Final Problem, he’s never heard of him.
Observations:William J Burns, then America’s greatest detective,
visited Doyle in April 1913. He spoke of his experiences of the
Molly Maguires, an Irish-American secret society who
terrorised the mining communities of Pennsylvania in the 1860s
and 1870s. This inspired Doyle to put pen to paper on a new
Sherlock Holmes novel, the first for over a decade. He changed
the Molly Maguires to The Scowrers, and based the character of
Birdy Edwards on James McParland, a Pinkerton operative who
T H E C A N O N
• 89 •

---

bravely infiltrated the organisation and brought many to justice.
Boss McGinty was inspired by John Kehoe, a local Lodge presi-
dent hanged in 1877 on McParland’s evidence (although the
detective was accused in 1905 of tampering with it).