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Welcome! Like the book of the same name, this blog is an eclectic collection of Sherlockian scribblings based on more than a half-century of reading Sherlock Holmes. Please add your own thoughts. You can also follow me on Twitter @DanAndriacco and on my Facebook fan page at Dan Andriacco Mysteries. You might also be interested in my Amazon Author Page. My books are also available at Barnes & Noble and in all main electronic formats including Kindle, Nook, Kobo and iBooks for the iPad.

Monday, May 14, 2012

Quintessential Quote #51

"It is the first quality of a criminal investigator that he should see through a disguise."
-- Sherlock Holmes, The Hound of the Baskervilles, Ch. 13
In my recent talk on A Study in Scarlet at "A Gathering of Southern Sherlockians," I enumerated eight techniques that Sherlock Holmes uses throughout his career (not including deduction and eliminating the impossible, which occur in every story).

Of these eight, only one -- disguise -- does not occur in A Study in Scarlet. In fact, disguise is used against Holmes in chapter five, causing the detective to cry, "We were the old women to be fooled." 

So perhaps the above quote can be read as a cry from the heart based on the experience of a cocksure young sleuth who found that he had a lot to learn.

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