The Adventure of the Red Circle

"The Adventure of the Red Circle" by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle is a crime fiction novella written during the early 20th century. This engaging tale follows the legendary detective Sherlock Holmes and his companion Dr. John Watson as they delve into a mysterious case involving a peculiar lodger and a series of dangerous events connected to him. The story encapsulates themes of secrecy, identity, and the perils that accompany a hidden past. In the narrative, Holmes is approached by Mrs. Warren, the landlady of a peculiar lodger who has not been seen since his arrival ten days prior. Holmes soon learns that the lodger communicates through printed notes and seems to be hiding from a dangerous threat. Conjecturing that there may have been a change of lodgers, Holmes investigates further and discovers a series of signals and a connection to a notorious criminal named Giuseppe Gorgiano. As events progress, a bloody confrontation unfolds, ultimately revealing that the lodger is actually Gennaro Lucca, who has killed Gorgiano in self-defense against a nefarious criminal organization known as the Red Circle. The story concludes with Lucca’s wife describing their harrowing escape from Gorgiano and their attempt to live a quiet life, leading to a moral ambiguity around justice and vengeance. (This is an automatically generated summary.)

Sir Arthur Ignatius Conan Doyle was a British writer and physician. He created the character Sherlock Holmes in 1887 for A Study in Scarlet, the first of four novels and fifty-six short stories about Holmes and Dr. Watson. The Sherlock Holmes stories are milestones in the field of crime fiction.