Opening up, there was a brief discussion- run down of this year's 221B Con. Next year will be held April 14-16 2023.
Holmes, Doyle & Friends will happen in Dayton again next year March 24-25, 2023.
And then Holmes in the Heartland is happening July 28-30, 2023. Registration will be open later this summer.
The Sherlock Holmes in 221 objects will be in Bloomington Indiana August 6th and there will be speakers at this event. Registration is open now.
Also, the Toronto Jubilee 221B the 50th anniversary of the collection at the Toronto Library as well as the 50th anniversary of the Bootmakers of Toronto. Sept 23-25, registration now open. Included on the 22nd of September is the ACD Toronto walk. Keynote speakers are Nicholas Meyer and Douglas Kerr.
The Audible podcast Moriarty: The Devils' Game was brought up as a listening suggestion by Nellie as was the Spotify original podcast Scotland Yard Confidential. The narrator's name is John Hopkins which (hypothetically) could have a tie in with Sherlock Holmes.
Discussion about the Red Circle:
The original title was supposed to be The Adventure of the Bloomsbury Lodger
The book opens with Mrs. Warren worrying about a lodger who paid double rent and stays in their room. The question was asked, why is any landlady worrying about a tenant who pays double and is quiet?
Bob suggested that Klinger mentioned the landlady was actually in charge of a rooming house which was a lower class of lodging than boarding houses like the ones Holmes and Watson lived in.
Originally Holmes is not interested in the case- Scrapbooking was more important.
While Holmes digs through the Daily Gazette, he doesn't grow interested until Mr Warren is kidnapped.
Ora asked how did the group find the lodger and why did they kidnap the wrong person. It was a foggy morning.
Nellie added that they threw the coat behind the victim and maybe that's how they didn't know who they caught.
Wayne asked just how many male lodgers did the home have?
Nellie's favorite part of the story was the Agony column of the Daily Gazette and how Holmes just loudly reads parts and makes commentary.
Question: why were the associates of Black Gorgiano not worried about after the man was killed?
Wayne suggested that because it wasn't really Red Circle business that one Gorgiano was murdered, the others just dispersed.
Mary read a paper she wrote for this story titled Reader Beware: The Red Circle. She talks about several things from the story including the easy coded messages and where are all the WC's and if Mrs. Warren was cataloguing everything the mysterious border asked for then why isn't fresh water for hand washing or chamber pots mentioned?
This turned into a discussion about London being behind in basic things like sanitation, heating and cooling and pipes. Kristen talked about the retrofitting of the lamps to electric.
This brought up that Mary also read a paper she wrote on The Adventure of the Gloria Scott at a Parallel Cases meeting in 2005 also discussing coded messages.
Joe mentioned the Long Island Cave mystery mentioned by the Pinkerton agent. There are no caves in Long Island.
Bob mentioned that Klinger spoke about the Red Circle maybe being part of the Freemasons and the Italian mafia and brought up Lodge 21- and Godfather 3. Conan Doyle had a on and off thing with secret societies as he was an on and off member of the Masons.
The consensus of how the group liked the story was mixed. It was more of a meh. The story was in The Last Bow which was published in 1911.
Also a quick debate if there were any similarities between Gorgiano and Moriarty outside having a one on one confrontation and losing and working with an organization. Gorgiano's mission was personal where Moriarty's mission was business. Other than that, no real correlation.
The next meeting is on September 10 @ 1pm at the Ethical Society and will be covering "The Disappearance of Lady Frances Carfax."
