Portsmouth 100 - A Darker Sherlock Holmes.

Portsmouth 100 - A Darker Sherlock Holmes.

When I was asked to choose a story from The Case-Book of Sherlock Holmes for Portsmouth Central Library’s 100 Best Books project, I selected one of the darker and perhaps less familiar adventures: ‘ The Adventure of the Illustrious Client. ‘ 

As a volunteer with the Richard Lancelyn Green Bequest, I have a particular interest in Arthur Conan Doyle and Sherlock Holmes. Working with the Bequest is a constant reminder of just how much there is to discover beyond the best-known Holmes stories. ‘ The Adventure of the Illustrious Client ‘ caught my attention because it contains many of the familiar ingredients of a Sherlock Holmes investigation, but its atmosphere is considerably darker. 

The story begins with Sherlock Holmes being approached by an unnamed and extremely influential client. Holmes’s instructions are unusual: he must prevent Violet de Merville from marrying Baron Adelbert Gruner. 

Baron Gruner is one of Arthur Conan Doyle’s more disturbing villains. Sherlock Holmes describes him as “ …a real aristocrat of crime with a superficial suggestion of afternoon tea and all the cruelty of the grave behind it. “ The Baron is dangerous because he does not look like the stereotypical criminal. He is perfectly capable of moving within respectable society while concealing a much more sinister side to his character.

One of the most disturbing details is Baron Gruner’s book in which he records his relationships with women. He treats their lives and experiences almost as possessions to be collected and catalogued. It reveals the enormous gulf between his cultivated public persona and the reality of his behaviour. Gruner is already suspected of having murdered his first wife, so Violet de Melville may be in serious danger of becoming his next victim. 

This makes the case unusual. Sherlock Holmes is not investigating a murder or searching for a stolen object. Instead, he is trying to prevent something terrible from happening. Holmes has to find a way of exposing Baron Gruner’s character, to persuade Violet that the man she loves is not the man she believes him to be.

Enter Kitty Winter, who has her own history with Baron Gruner and every reason to hate him. She states her aim bluntly: “ Let me see this man in the mud, and I’ve got all I’ve worked for - in the mud with my foot on his cursed face. “ 

But Kitty is not simply another piece in Holmes’s investigation. Her experience gives the story an emotional force that a conventional detective puzzle might lack. 

The most shocking moment comes toward the end of the story when Kitty Winter confronts Baron Gruner and throws acid into his face. Doctor Watson records the scene:

“ The features which I had admired a few minutes before were now like some beautiful painting over which the artist has passed a wet and foul sponge. They were blurred, discoloured, inhuman, terrible. “

It is a brutal scene. But Arthur Conan Doyle does not present it simply as violence for its own sake. Kitty Winter has suffered at Baron Gruner’s hands and her actions are driven by anger and revenge. Kitty operates outside the law altogether. Her actions force us to consider the sometimes difficult distinction between justice and revenge. 

Sherlock Holmes himself is beaten up by Baron Gruner’s henchmen during the investigation. Doctor Watson is genuinely concerned for his friend, and there is a sense throughout the story that Holmes has entered a world where the usual rules no longer provide much protection. 

This is not quite the Sherlock Holmes of some of the earlier stories. He is older and more experienced, but he is also confronted by a particularly dangerous opponent. The story shows us a Holmes who is prepared to enter morally complicated territory in order to prevent further harm. 

‘ The Adventure of the Illustrious Client ‘ may not be the first Sherlock Holmes story that comes to mind, but perhaps that is precisely why it deserves another look. 

It has a memorable and ruthless villain in Baron Gruner, and a fascinating character in Kitty Winter. Presenting a different kind of challenge for Sherlock Holmes, it also shows us a darker and more complicated side of the great detective. 

‘ The Adventure of the Illustrious Client ‘ is one of the final set of twelve Sherlock Holmes short stories. Originally published in the Strand Magazine between 1921 and 1927, the stories appeared in book form as The Case-Book of Sherlock Holmes in 1927. 

By this stage Sir Arthur Conan Doyle had lived with his creation for many years, and the later stories can sometimes feel very different from the adventures in the earlier collections. But they are still well worth reading. 

To me, that is one of the enduring pleasures of reading the Sherlock Holmes stories. However many times I return to Baker Street, there is always more to explore.

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