Tadiana ✩Night Owl☽'s Reviews > The Adventure of the Beryl Coronet

One of the more enjoyable Sherlock Holmes short mysteries!



A desperate banker, Mr. Holder, comes to Sherlock Holmes with a problem that could ruin him: a precious coronet made of gold and beryls was entrusted to him as collateral for a loan. Not wanting to risk leaving the coronet in his banker's safe, he decides it will be safer with him personally (WHUT). So he carries it around all evening and then puts it in a locked bureau in his room when he goes to sleep.

Holder wakes up in the middle of the night: his wastrel son is holding the coronet, which has a large piece broken off and missing. Understandably, he accuses his son. But could the story be more complicated than it appears? Sherlock seems to think so...

A subtler mystery than I expected, and one of my favorites in the The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes collection.