Who is Sherlock Holmes?

That simple question had been in the upper left corner of Sherlock Peoria since day one, well over six years ago. It would seem the most basic of questions, one that any semi-literate sort, old movie buff, or just plain old culturally aware human being should be able to answer. But the problem with such seemingly simple questions is that we never stop to think about the answers. And this week, I found myself in a spot where I had to think about that one once again.

The stimulus (ah, what a frightening word that has become of late!) was being asked to deliver a few introductory remarks to a big screen showing of the Basil Rathbone movie, The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, at the Apollo Theater downtown. It had been a while since I did any “intro to Holmes” sort of talks, so I needed to get back to thinking about the basics of this hobby called Sherlockiana. Like the question, “Who is Sherlock Holmes?”

The first answer to come to mind is this: “He’s a detective.”

But there are plenty of detectives. So I refined it a bit: “He’s the world’s first and foremost consulting detective.”

And that’s where it starts to get interesting. Sherlock Holmes is a consulting detective. It’s one of those words you get kind of oblivious to after years as a Holmes fan. When Sherlock Holmes sprang full-grown from the mind of a young doctor named Doyle, he wasn’t just any old detective. He was a detective based upon the model of a professional medical man. He was college educated, unlike the other detectives of his day. He was a specialist in the field of criminology, and had gone to great lengths to learn all he could about his speciality. And, as when one’s family doctor sends one to a heart specialist when he or she is out of their depth, Sherlock Holmes was the detective other detectives came to when they were in over their heads.

In that single word, “consulting,” one can see traces of Holmes’s basis on Joe Bell, Doyle’s very observant teacher in medical school. One can see traces of Conan Doyle’s own hoped for career path, and the many medical men he had known along the way.

What makes Holmes’s role as a consulting detective all the more interesting, is that, in our new world of forensic scientists, criminal profilers, and investigators working every possible angle of the law, Sherlock Holmes is still the same as he has always been . . . the master of all detectives. The one they come to when they’re out of their depth.  If you view him as a man limited to a normal human span, he is now a part of history, but – ah! – in his day, in his day he was the greatest detective of them all.

And if you have the imagination to take Holmes further than a normal human lifetime . . . to theorize that he could still be alive today, and that he continued his area of expertise, well, then Sherlock Holmes would still be the master of all detectives. His brain was always first-rate – is there any doubt he couldn’t have kept up with developments in his field, if he wasn’t actually contributing to those developments from behind the scenes?

Who is Sherlock Holmes?

A consulting detective.

That’s exactly who he was, and still can be.

Your humble correspondent,
Brad Keefauver