 The Greek Interpreter
 Synopsis
Sherlock takes Watson to the Diogenes Club to meet his brother Mycroft. Mycroft is a great analytical genius and storehouse of knowledge – Sherlock says elsewhere that Mycroft’s specialism is omniscience. However, Mycroft claims he doesn’t have the energy to undertake investigations such as Sherlock does. Instead, he divides his time between Whitehall (where he advises the government, and, according to Sherlock, IS the British government from time to time), his lodgings in Pall Mall and the Diogenes Club, opposite. As well as being lazy, Mycroft is misanthropic – it is the rule in the Diogenes Club that members do not speak to one another, except in the “Strangers’ Room”. In the room, Holmes introduces Watson to Mycroft. Mycroft and Holmes practise deduction, and it becomes clear that Mycroft is at least as good an analyst as Holmes.
Mycroft introduces Holmes and Watson to MELAS, a Greek interpreter with an extraordinary story to tell. Melas was taken to a mysterious location in a blacked-out cab by MR LATIMER, and forced to interpret for a Greek man, whose face was disfigured with sticking plaster and who “spoke” through writing. They were trying to get him to sign something, but he refused “until I see her married by a Greek priest who I know”. Melas was able to surreptitiously discover that the man’s name was KRATIDES, and that he was being starved into submission, when they were interrupted by a woman named SOPHY, who embraced the man until they were both overpowered by Latimer’s associate. Melas was released but warned not to speak of what he had seen. However, he told Mycroft, who placed an advertisement asking for information about Sophy Kratides.
An answer to the advertisement comes, with an address. Holmes and Watson try to take Melas with them to investigate, but discover that he has already been abducted. They race to the address in time to save Melas but not Kratides – and find that the two criminals who were holding him have fled along with Sophy. )They had abducted her and were hoping to get Kratides to sign over her property).
Months later, Holmes read that two men who had been travelling with a Greek woman had been stabbed. Apparently they had killed each other, and the woman had disappeared. Holmes suspects that Sophy had her revenge.
Comments
As a story of detection, The Greek Interpreter is not Conan Doyle’s finest hour. The solution relies on an unknown helper responding to an ad in a newspaper and giving Holmes the bad guys’ address. This is utterly implausible to modern tastes, and even contemporary readers must have found the idea somewhat implausible!
However, The Greek Interpreter is valuable as it provides a notable addition to the Holmes mythology. The story marks the first appearance of MYCROFT HOLMES, Sherlock’s even more intelligent older brother. Despite being fat and rather lazy, Mycroft has a brilliant mind, and makes his living advising the British government. Indeed, in the story of The Bruce-Partington Plans, we learn that, according to Sherlock, “Occasionally he is the British government.” |
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