stonepicnicking_okapi

I listened to an audiobook version of "A Case of Identity," and the main reaction, which I always have to this story, is pure rage.

Tell her!

Here's the plot: Mary Sutherland's stepfather (under a false identity named Hosmer Angel) woos then jilts his stepdaughter so that she will not marry and keep supporting himself and Mary's mother financially, and Holmes solves the case but chooses not to reveal the truth to his client:

'If I tell her she will not believe me. You may remember the old Persian saying, "There is danger for him who taketh the tiger cub, and danger also for whoso snatches a delusion from a woman." There is as much sense in Hafiz as in Horace, and as much knowledge of the world.'

I've written plenty of rage-fic & dark fic, even dark poems, over the ending of this case.

But apparently this is also based on a true story. A young girl named Joan Paynter consulted ACD himself about her missing fiancé and ACD found the guy but convinced the young lady that he wasn't worth the trouble.

Here's Holmes at the end taking two steps toward the whip to give it to Mary's stepfather, but he lets him go.