I appreciate your defense of Holmes. As I mentioned in another comment, I haven’t read much of him, but I do remember one particular passage which annoyed me due to the way I had felt like I could have figured out the deductions had I been there personally, but because of the way Dr Watson narrates, the deduction eluded me.
Basically, Watson describes the client as wearing some sort of “odd circular jewelry with square holes through which a thin string was passed” (paraphrased from memory). From this, Sherlock deduces that the client has recently been on vacation to China. How? Well, that jewelry are Chinese coins, of course!
I know what Chinese coins look like, but was completely misled by Watson’s description. Furthermore, “recent vacation to China” is somewhat of a lucky guess. Perhaps it was a friend who went to China, and brought these coins back as a souvenir gift.
Perhaps it was a friend who went to China, and brought these coins back as a souvenir gift.
Fortunately you can rely on Conan Doyle and writers in general being parsimonious: unlike reality, stories don’t contain odd details unless they’re important to the plot.
I appreciate your defense of Holmes. As I mentioned in another comment, I haven’t read much of him, but I do remember one particular passage which annoyed me due to the way I had felt like I could have figured out the deductions had I been there personally, but because of the way Dr Watson narrates, the deduction eluded me.
Basically, Watson describes the client as wearing some sort of “odd circular jewelry with square holes through which a thin string was passed” (paraphrased from memory). From this, Sherlock deduces that the client has recently been on vacation to China. How? Well, that jewelry are Chinese coins, of course!
I know what Chinese coins look like, but was completely misled by Watson’s description. Furthermore, “recent vacation to China” is somewhat of a lucky guess. Perhaps it was a friend who went to China, and brought these coins back as a souvenir gift.
Fortunately you can rely on Conan Doyle and writers in general being parsimonious: unlike reality, stories don’t contain odd details unless they’re important to the plot.