I’ll be uploading rankings of Sherlock Holmes stories from my new book, Wherever Fact May Lead Me: A Ranking of the Sherlock Holmes Stories, every day till we reach the best story. After that, I’ll share my ranking of the best villains in the Holmes canon. You can find the rankings on my website, and you can buy a copy of the book on Amazon.
Ranking the Sherlock Holmes Stories
45. The Adventure of the Solitary Cyclist (January 1904, Return)
The Adventure of the Solitary Cyclist is one of those stories, like The Five Orange Pips and The Dancing Men, in which more ought to have been done to prevent the client’s unhappy ending. Where The Solitary Cyclist differs from those others is in Watson’s culpability, for in this story, Watson ought to have been more proactive than he was. Sent to the scene of the mystery by Holmes, who is working another case, Watson performs in remarkably substandard fashion. He does, as Holmes notes, nothing of use, and Watson’s greatest strengths—his tenacity and bravery—are left by the wayside. Watson, if he were but performing up to his own standards, ought to have rented a bicycle of his own, waited in the shrubbery, and confronted the man who was following Violet Smith. At the very least, Watson ought to have positioned himself in such a fashion as to be able to follow Carruthers (the South African desperado whose heart was melted by the beautiful lady) and so been able to better identify him. As it stands, Holmes’ indignation with Watson’s efforts is not misplaced. Watson does little more than to verify the story that Smith put forth, though her story was never in doubt. Holmes does little better, though he does succeed in satisfactorily sending, with a straight left, the “slogging ruffian” Woodley home in a cart. (That Holmes later chides Carruthers for not keeping his pistol holstered seems absurd to me; Carruthers seemed to have honor on his side, and I, for one, was as displeased as Carruthers that that hound Woodley survived the gunshot.)
All in all, Violet Smith has every right to give Holmes and Watson a one star rating for their support. She engaged Holmes’ services, and she sent him regular updates. He did very little himself, and he blundered (his own word for his own action) in arriving too late to the scene of the crime. She was mauled, illegally married off to a brute, and her concerns—though articulately and appropriately expressed—did not stimulate Holmes’ anxiety sufficiently. He suggests that all will be well once she calls up her new boyfriend and has a change of scenery, and, perhaps, he is right. But, in reality, she has already undertaken significant, preventable damage, and Heaven only knows what the lingering results of it might be. Violet might find it hard to trust her next employer, and she might feel skittish in the company of strangers for years to come. Who is to say what deleterious effects such a sensational event can have upon a person’s life? At the very least, she will likely be disinclined to recommend Holmes’ practice to her friends, while being inclined to ride bicycles with her partner, Cyril, so that she will never again be a solitary cyclist.
