Sherlock Holmes and the Redheaded League by Arthur Conan Doyle
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
This type of story must be what the old series Columbo was based upon; the primary investigator already knows (more of less) all of the answers before any of the other participants in the case have even asked the first question! After pondering his “three-pipe-problem” Sherlock brings Watson and a couple of other spectators along for the ride, to where he has anticipated to locate and capture the assailant, and then almost immediately lapsing back into his between-case-state of lethargy and introspection.
Sherlock Holmes is the perfect dichotomy of extrovert and introvert, depending on whether he has a case that he deems suitable for his attention. It goes to show how a single person should not be labelled as one thing, or another. We all wear different hats on different days; a deerstalker perhaps one day, and a thinking-cap on another.
Personally, I was hoping for a more multifarious involvement of the “redheaded league” itself, rather than it just being the proverbial distraction or “red-herring”(!) but as this is one of the fairly short Sherlock stories, there wasn’t much room for anything too complex!
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