The Adventure of the Blue Carbuncle - a Sherlock Holmes Short Story

“My name is Sherlock Holmes. It is my business to know what other people do not know.”

A middle of the road short story from Doyle. The story starts with the theft of A "Blue Carbuncle". A former felon is soon arrested. An acquaintance of Holmes discovers the carbuncle in the throat of a Christmas goose. Holmes traces the owner of the goose. He then works out that he was not the thief by offering him a replacement goose. The detective continues his search. This takes him first to an inn and then a dealer in Covent Garden. The dealer refuses to provide Holmes with information about the source of the goose. Holmes then observes another man trying to find the same information, and confronts him. The man, the head attendant at the hotel, confesses to his crime. Holmes allows him to remain free. His argument is that prison could make him a hardened criminal later.

Holmes turns up his powers of deduction to 11 in this story. For example, he describes a man in detail only by studying the his hat. Phrenology, or some such pseudo-science is how he manages it. He also draws conclusions based on a few ropey pieces of “evidence”. So this tale, while entertaining, has several errors of logic. Not the greatest Holmes and Watson caper ever but after a surprising end, it gets an extra star.