Play Book Tag discussion

The Adventure of the Illustrious Client by Arthur Conan Doyle

This is a standalone short story from The Case-Book of Sherlock Holmes. In fact, I found it in a huge collection I've been sipping since 2013, The Complete Sherlock Holmes and Tales of Terror and Mystery.

The villain here is Baron Adelbert Gruner, a womanizer who is also a murderer. He's used to get all the women he wants (this is easy for him as he's a very good-looking man), use them, ruin them and, sometimes, kill them. A young and wealthy woman is in love with him and they are about to get married, but someone (a mysterious person) wants for Sherlock Holmes to stop this marriage from happening. This person is worried for the well-being and life of the young woman, Miss Violet de Merville.

Sherlock Holmes seems to be uninterested at first, since he wishes to know who his employer is, but accepts the job eventually, as he's probably found out the identity of the person behind this case.

It is a short and interesting story, and a good one - I have yet to find a bad Sherlock Holmes story, to be honest. However, it is not up to some other SH stories. I honestly prefer the ones where there is a mystery involved, while in this case there's basically no mystery at all, it's just an account of all SH's attempts to prevent this marriage. It's interesting mainly for one character, Kitty Winter, a woman ruined by Baron Gruner who is seeking vengeance. The ending is a very good one, but I won't give it away. I had a feeling, though, that it was a bit rushed and, so to speak, too much inclined against the villain. However, I guess this is often the case in such literature, especially in that timeframe.

This is not a story I would recommend to someone who didn't know Conan Doyle (there are far better ones out there), but it can be a nice addition if you already know and like both author and character.

Sound really interesting. I love how the tags guide us to read things we wouldn't have picked up! Sounds fun.

I agree, Amy, it's really great how this tags "game" leads us to read outside of our comfort zone! As a matter of fact, I would have read this short story anyway, but I probably wouldn't have written a review :)