"The Adventure of the Red Headed League", is one of the 56 short Sherlock Holmes stories written by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. It first appeared in the Strand in August 1891, with illustraions by Sidney Paget. Conan Doyle ranked The Red Headed League second in his list of his twelve favourite Holmes stories. It is also the second of the twelve stories in the book Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, which was published in 1892.

Synopsis

The story, set in 1890, follows Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson as they attempt to solve the singular puzzle provided by a London pawnbroker Jabez Wilson, who is being paid very large sums of money for simply coming to an office and copying the Encyclopædia Britannica. There is a far more serious underlying motive, though.

It seems obvious to Holmes that the point in having Jabez Wilson spend several hours each day away from his pawnshop performing such a pointless task is simply to keep him out of the way while some nefarious deed is perpetrated back at the shop. Jabez Wilson's high pay for this task suggests that it may involve quite a bit of money. After a visit to the pawnshop and the surrounding neighbourhood, Holmes deduces exactly what the pawnbroker's assistant is up to, and catches him red-handed.

It has been noted that the dates given in the story do not match the characters' descriptions of time passing.

External links

• The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes - in easy to read HTML format.
• The Red Headed League - in easy to read HTML format.
• (including The Red-Headed League)