After taking a short break from blogging due to a hectic house move I have finally got myself a lot more time to read and listen to my beloved audio books. So expect much more blogging in the future than I have been doing in the past fortnight.
Getting back to my ‘Short Read Sunday’ meme, a post created by myself, Swords & Spectres (obviously not my real name. That’s Aaron … and considerably less cool), in which every weekend I read a short story and blog a review about it. I do love taking time away from big thick books to take in a small bite-sized chunk. My offering for this week is a short story from one of my favourite authors: A Case of Identity by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle.
Title: A Case of Identity
Author: Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
Pages: Not certain as is a part of a complete collection and a kindle format book. Roughly 200-300 kindle locations.
My rating of A Case of Identity: 1.5 out of 5
Purchase (The Complete Sherlock Holmes Collection): Amazon UK, Amazon US
A Case of Identity is one of the many short stories in the Sherlock Holmes universe. I own a copy of the Complete Sherlock Holmes collection and, for this week’s short story I simply chose one at random. Sadly, I do not feel the randomisation did my choice justice as I do not think I landed on one of the better tales.
In ‘A Case of Identity’ the problem is not one of the more difficult ones for Holmes to solve. In fact, he seems to solve it long before the client has finished telling her tale. There was simply no need for any of his extravagant disguises, nor for he and Watson to go rushing off around the city like they have in other tales. Everything is pretty much wrapped up in the comfort of 221b Baker Street.
The problem itself, on the face of it, is an interesting one. A young woman, engaged to be married, is left standing at the church door for a husband that never arrives. The cab driver swears that the groom entered the carriage but, upon arriving at the church, the carriage is empty. The distraught bride enlists the aid of Sherlock Holmes and his trusty companion, Dr John Watson, to discover the whereabouts of her betrothed.
As I said earlier, Holmes has the whole thing solved pretty quick, but, much like other Sherlock Holmes stories, he does provide the reader with an insight into how he deduces little things such as the clients profession and that she left the house in a hurry to come and see him. When you get through a good few of the stories, you can’t help but see the world in a different way. When I meet a new person, or even when I see someone I know, my eyes take in every aspect of them and I form my own little theories as to what they have been doing etc … This isn’t me being nosey. This is me subconsciously doing something that Sir Arthur Conan Doyle has drummed into me. It’s like a tap spraying water that I simply cannot turn off. And I love it.
Despite the fact this is a pretty simple, easy to solve and, to be frank, an unmemorable story as far as the rest of the Holmes canon goes, I am thankful for having read the complete collection as a whole as it has changed the way I look at every day life. That feeling of thankfulness, however, does not stop me from slamming this short story with a low mark. Purely because you always expect more from a Holmes tale than this particular one offers.
Not going to lie, though, it does pain me to give anything Sir Arthur wrote a low score.
Swords & Spectres 
Was this the story with the coat in the river weighted down with copper coins, or some such?
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It wasn’t. This was to do with a young woman and her vanishing husband. No river in sight. I read all the stories a good 6 or 7 years ago, and what you say rings a bell. But I can’t remember much more 😦
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Ok, the story I’m thinking of involves a man who disappears and all that remains is the coat in the river and Holmes figures out what isgoing on and a beggar in prison is involved. It’s been long enough that I don’t even remember how it all wraps up.
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Lol at ‘Aaron is considerably less cool’ I always thought that Aaron epitomised cool on all levels!😂
I hope your house move went well?
I am shocked that you have given Conan Doyle such a low rating, shocked I tell you, you turned me onto reading Holmes and I know how much you love him!😀
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Well, my name doesn’t have swords in it 😉 the nove went well, indeed. Ah, I know. It pained me. I may have to have a red wine to dull the pain.
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Oooooh… well, thank the minions this was a short read? Odd how Doyle decided to go about the story if the mystery is solved even before the story-telling by the client is finished? Was this supposed to make the reader think the solved mystery isn’t actually solved only to still end up being solved? 😀
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He often has Holmes solve something early but keep things to himself. It just infuriates the reader as we cannot solve it nearly as fast as the great man.
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Oh no that sucks. I have only read the first two books, but plan to continue my way through the whole series, bummer that this one will be coming up, but that happens with short stories I guess.
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It’s still worth a read. Has the little nuances that make Sherlock great. Just not as complex or engaging as the others.
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