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The Adventures of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle


Conan Doyle also modeled Dr. Watson, Holmes's sidekick and narrator of the stories, after himself (Pearson 14). Soon, he began writing The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes as a monthly series in the Strand Magazine. The second story in the series titled The Red-Headed League is one of his cleverest, best-written tales. .
             The Red-Headed League is a mystery about a red-headed pawnbroker, Mr. Jabez Wilson, who gets tricked into working for the con-artist John Clay. After being offered a job then having it taken away, Mr. Wilson gets suspicious and goes to Holmes for help. Sherlock figures out that John Clay and his assistant, disguised as a photographer, needed to use Mr. Wilson's basement to dig a hole which would lead them to the bank vault on the other side. John Clay, going by Vincent Spaulding, needed Mr. Wilson away from his office for long periods of time and therefore offered Wilson a decent job meant only for red-headed men. .
             In The Red-Headed League, Conan Doyle introduces the idea of the fair-play mystery. As with all Sherlock Holmes stories, the readers know all the important clues at the same time Holmes does, so in theory, they should be able to solve the crimes by themselves. This sort of detective fiction is common, largely because of the popular success of early fair play mysteries such as The Red-Headed League. Throughout the story, readers are given clues as when Holmes sees dirt on Spaulding's knees and taps the pavement outside Mr. Wilson's office to see if it's hollow (Doyle, "The Adventures of" 27). Towards the end, Holmes tells Watson that he should be able to solve the mystery before Holmes explains what happened (Doyle, "The Adventures of" 32). Dr. Watson represents the reader in the story, which means that knowing what Dr. Watson knows the reader should also figure out everything through deductive reasoning. .
             Sir Arthur Conan Doyle highlights the power of logical reasoning throughout The Red-Headed League.


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