A Case of Identity
A short-sighted typist's fiancé vanishes on the morning of their wedding. Holmes sees through a cruel domestic deception that the police would never have caught.
A slight case by the standards of the canon, and one that a full cast improves more than most. The whole thing turns on two voices being heard as one: a woman describes a fiancé she cannot quite picture, and the answer is standing in the room. Mary Sutherland does most of the talking, in a run-on, anxious style Doyle wrote very carefully, while James Windibank is all clipped self-possession. Holmes solves it early and spends the rest of the story being angry about it, which is easier to hear when his voice is separate from Watson's account of him.
The voices that carry it
Mary Sutherland's voice sets the tempo: she talks past every question, and the performance keeps that rhythm rather than tidying it. Windibank, when he finally appears, is deliberately flat by contrast.
Chapter one plays without an account. Start listening to A Case of Identity.
Voice cast
4 characters plus the narrator, each with their own voice. All the voices of A Case of Identity.
- Sherlock Holmes — The world's only consulting detective. Razor-sharp analytical mind, cold precision, theatrical wit. Alternates between lethargy and explosive energy. Speaks in crisp, certain pronouncements.
- Dr. Watson — Holmes's loyal friend and biographer. A former army surgeon, warm, practical, earnest. Speaks with admiration for Holmes and genuine concern for clients.
- Mary Sutherland — A short-sighted, over-talkative typist and client in A Case of Identity. Naive, trusting, and convinced her missing fiancé will return.
- James Windibank — Mary Sutherland's cold, calculating stepfather — secretly disguised as her fiancé Hosmer Angel to control her inheritance. Unmasked by Holmes but untouchable by law.
Chapters
- Chapter III: A Case of Identity
About this recording
How long is A Case of Identity?
It is one of the shorter Holmes stories — a single chapter of about forty minutes, which makes it a reasonable trial run if you want to hear what a full-cast recording sounds like before starting a novel.
Does it spoil anything to listen out of order?
No. The Holmes short stories stand alone. This one is set after Watson has married and moved out of Baker Street, but nothing in it depends on having heard the earlier cases.