A sudden realization on Holmes canon

[neadods]

I'm listening to Edward Hardwicke reading the Adventures of Sherlock Holmes while I work, and in the middle of Copper Beeches, I realized something. From The Red-Headed League onwards, Holmes canon is just riddled with people doing dumbass things for money, even when the money comes so high or so easy that someone with 5 functioning brain cells would hear all kinds of warning bells.

BUT!

The men all take the money and come to Holmes afterwards, after things inevitably fall apart.

The only woman to get a offered a deal like this, Violet Hunter, comes to Holmes FIRST, saying "I really need this money, but this stinks on ice. I need your advice."

Copper Beeches has long been a favorite because Violet is smart and proactive, but this is the first time I realized that she is not only smarter than the antagonists in her story, but also than about a third of the men in canon.

Comments

[penguineggs.livejournal.com]

Actually, she isn't the only woman - Mrs Moberley in the Adventure of the Three Gables also gets offered a deal (to buy her house) which looks too good to be true and comes to Holmes first.

[neadods.livejournal.com]

True. I'm not as fond of Three Gables though - Mrs. Moberley is not the sharpest knife in the drawer.

"Is there anything new in the house?"
"No."
"Mr. Holmes, they ransacked the trunk that was delivered a couple days ago!"
*facepalm*

[penguineggs.livejournal.com]

I've always assumed she wasn't thinking straight between grief and old age. There are a lot of problems with Three Gables (two words: Susan and Barney) but I like the idea that Mrs Mobberley's one ambition is to go round the world and Holmes facilitates that.

Mind you, I've always thought the antagonist there is a lot more like movie!Adler and TV!Adler (in that she really does outwit Holmes and get her own way, and end up a Duchess) than book!Adler.

[redpanda13.livejournal.com]

Violet Hunter comes to Holmes about the creepy job, but she tells him she's already decided to take it-- she just wants him as backup in case it really goes pear-shaped. She does a good job on her own, though, and doesn't leave him much to do.

Holmes says to Watson that it's not a job he'd like a sister of his to take. Some people have speculated that she WAS a sister of his, otherwise unmentioned.

And she's a redhead.

[honorh.livejournal.com]

No, Violet Hunter is definitely a brunette. That was part of why the Rucastles wanted her to impersonate the husband's daughter.

[penguineggs.livejournal.com]

It's described as "a rather peculiar tint of chestnut".

[redpanda13.livejournal.com]

As penguineggs says, "a rather peculiar tint of chestnut," and she's "freckled like a plover's egg." I rest my case.

[honorh.livejournal.com]

Hm. "Chestnut" to me always means brown, but then, I'm American; I don't know what it would mean in the UK. And some of us brunettes freckle quite easily.

[neadods.livejournal.com]

I've always interpreted that as meaning red/brown hair, the kind an American would have called "a particular shade of auburn" or "... russet."

[penguineggs.livejournal.com]

Would the colour of Gillian Anderson's hair be about right?

[neadods.livejournal.com]

Pretty much.

[penguineggs.livejournal.com]

She doesn't have an option about taking the job, really; the agency through whom it was offered make it clear when she initially shows doubt that if she refuses it they won't offer her any other alternatives.

[neadods.livejournal.com]

That always pissed me off. The idea that she had to cut her hair for employment should have set off alarm bells ringing for the woman running the agency, no matter how big her commission. There's "making money" and then there's "employment for respectable ladies."

[penguineggs.livejournal.com]

Yes; I've always thought of the woman running the employment agency as the sort of wet and weedy HR type who refuses to entertain complaints of sexual harassment against senior personnel in case they rock the boat. Thank God for Holmes (see also Thor Bridge where he basically tells Gibson, "I don't care how much romantic flannel you wrap it up in; you're still sexually harassing a vulnerable employee. Cut it out.")

[neadods.livejournal.com]

Thor Bridge gets me on a variety of levels, because Gibson's sexually harassing an employee AND ignoring his wife (and, it is heavily suggested in the Granada version, complicit in the employee teaching the children to be ashamed of their mother's heritage.)

Mind you, the employee seems to have decided that she can "do good" by encouraging alienation of affection, so I'm not particularly on her side.

I always wanted Thor Bridge to end with Mycroft offering to send a nanny to help with the kids of the second family. But don't worry, she won't be a THING like the mother... Gibson is exactly the sort who's going to get bored of the new angel in the household in about 5 years and a kid or two.

[penguineggs.livejournal.com]

I always assumed the very heavy emphasis on, "It is not a job I would like a sister of mine to take" was Holmes' way of choking off Watson's very obvious matchmaking, to be honest.

Of course, that's the one where actually the real Miss Ruscastle has also arranged her own rescue, with the assistance of the housekeeper, so it's one for the women all round, really.

[neadods.livejournal.com]

I'm with you on the matchmaking, and can just imagine Holmes going "I said SISTER, you perv!" at Watson later.

[neadods.livejournal.com]

I agree with the comment below - that Holmes said "sister" to head off Watson's matchmaking (for all the good it did him.) I can just see them after the end of the story, with Watson saying "You made a good couple" and Holmes snapping back "I said SISTER, you perv!"