He puts himself in the shoes of the murderer. However I find it weird how we only hear of the detective at the end of the story which is very unusual in a crime story.
Because of his short appearance in the story we don’t have enough information to fully analyse his talents and whether they’re believable.
The detective in ‘The Man with the Twisted Lip’ is the worlds most heard of detective called Sherlock Holmes. From the beginning of the story you hear of him unlike the detective in ‘Superfluous Murder’. From the story we find out that Sherlock is very assertive “it was difficult to refuse any of Sherlock Holmes requests”, He takes drugs “I have added opium-smoking to cocaine injections” and he is good at amplifying quiet sounds in his head “I have good ears”. We can gather that he’s getting on a bit with his age “…Wrinkles…”, He makes sure the case is solved by a certain time and he’s committed to his job “…his mind would go on for days without rest…”.
I do find it very weird how the alleged best in the business does get played at his own game by a beggar-man its uncanny!
The detective in “A Wife in a Million” is called Maggie Staniforth and you also hear of her throughout the whole story like Sherlock and unlike the detective in “Superfluous Murder”. In the story we are able to find out that Maggie is very committed to her job and works hours on end just like Sherlock “Take me to bed Sarah, let me forget about the battle field for a few hours, eh?”, “what a bitch of a job” this shows Maggie doesn’t enjoy her job at the moment because she describes it as a “battlefield”. She doesn’t spend much time at home with her partner (Sarah) “ She hurried out of the room seconds later the door slammed”, “it was after three when Maggie Staniforth closed the door behind her”, “I’m only here to have a quick bath and change my things, any chance of a sandwich… I was beginning to wonder if she still lived here”. This detective is also described facially like Sherlock Holmes was “She could see line of strain around her eyes”
The final detective was in the story ‘The Reluctant Detective’ where in fact there was two detectives working in a partnership which is different to all the others. The detectives in this story aren’t in the police force and they only set up the business so that they can save money on taxes and other legal charges “it started as a tax fiddle” they didn’t actually want to be detectives they had no experience so this story is the most extreme different type of story compared to the others.
After reading the stories I have cometo the decision that Maggie Staniforth from “A Wife in a Million” is to me the most convincing because the detective isn’t always perfect and I do think its possible that someone who has nothing to do with the case and who just gets told what’s happening can solve a crime through pure wit and intelligence this is also why I didn’t choose Sherlock because he seems super human and he’s to perfect in my view. The reason I did not choose the detective in “Superfluous Murder” is because its weird how the he is responsible for a death because he killed John Mansbridge by giving him the poisoned whisky of which Felix committed suicide with.
