Sarah Chung
February 9th, 2014
6th Hour
Mystery Book Assignment on Sherlock Holmes: A Case of Identity
Types of Clues:
 Superfluous
 Important
 Red Herring
Clues:
 The exact address or workplace of the fiancée was not known. –Important
 The fiancée preferred to walk together in the evening, rather than during the
hours of the day. –Important
 The fiancée made the other swear with her hand on the Bible that she would
always remain faithful no matter what. –Important
 The step-father of the woman was not supportive of the daughter meeting
with/socializing with men of her age. –Important
 The couple would secretly communicate behind the step-father’s back by
mail, so he would not know they were seeing each other. –Important
 The fiancée’s hands were large and calloused. –Superfluous
 The fiancée proposed to the other and urged her to marry when the stepfather was away, out of town. –Important
 The step-father is 15 years younger than the spouse and only 5 years older
than the daughter. –Important
 On the letters, instead of signing with a signature, it was type-written. –
Important
General Description:
A woman named Miss Mary Sutherland arrives at Sherlock Holmes and Watson’s
door claiming that her fiancée has gone missing. Her mother remarried a man 15
years younger than her and only 5 years older than Mary Sutherland. Her stepfather didn’t want Mary Sutherland to see other men her age, so she started acting
rebellious and started seeing someone named Mr. Hosmer Angel. Mary Sutherland
did not know a whole lot about him, but he was very conservative and kind to her.
He preferred to walk with her when they met up and they mostly communicated
by letter. He did not sign his letters by hand, but instead it was type-written.
Hosmer Angel proposes to Mary Sutherland and makes her swear on the Bible that
she will always be faithful to him. They planned to get married when the step-
father was out of town. They rode separately to the wedding, and when the cab
was opened it was empty inside.
Main Character’s Thinking:
Sherlock Holmes carefully observed all of the information and Miss Mary
Sutherland. He realized that she was fairly wealthy, from the quality of the clothes
that she wore, and from a defined dent in the sleeves on her forearm, a dent from
the edge of a table, formed when a writer is typing, indicating that she indeed
wrote often. He noticed the remarkable age difference between the mother and the
step-father and also considered the fact that the step-father didn’t want Mary
Sutherland to meet other men her age.
Sherlock Holmes came to the conclusion that it was the step-father pretending to
be Hosmer Angel all along. He came realized that the reason the step-father
married Mary Sutherland’s mother was for her wealth and if Mary go married, they
would have to share that wealth further, which he was unwilling to do. He then
(in disguise) pretended to be a man named Hosmer Angel and was very careful
about it, as not to reveal himself, like write his own signature on a letter. He then
“proposed” and made Mary Sutherland swear to remain faithful. On the day of the
wedding, he got out on the other side of the cab and made it look as if he were
missing. Because she could not date others to keep her sworn oath, she would not
see other men and would then keep the wealth within their family.
Thoughts:
I felt like most of the clues were fairly easy to connect and make conclusions from.
Once I had made the connection of who Hosmer Angel really was, it was easy to
link the other clues together for how and why he did it. Although, I feel that some
clues were harder to piece together than others. I had trouble connecting the fact
that the step-father married the mother for her wealth. If felt that it sort of jumped
to conclusions.