Criminal Must Be a Worthy Opponent Most criminals are often not very smart and may times make too many mistakes. Criminals need to be a worthy opponent to match the intelligence of the detectives, so they can make the detectives lives a little harder. A detective story needs a clever adversary so it will keep the readers on their toes, and keep them wondering who will win, the detective or the criminal.
The Speckled Band Dr. Grimesby Roylott in “The Speckled Band” gives Holmes a very worthy opponent to work against. Roylott possesses everything a worthy adversary should have. He is strong, clever, and cunning at his craft. Roylott is even cunning enough to commit murder to where only an intelligent man like Holmes would be able to solve it.…show more content… Brunton seems to be the mastermind behind the crime. He is able to decipher the Musgrave Ritual and find the hidden treasure that Reginald Musgrave himself could not find. Brunton seems to be the biggest opponent to Holmes because even Holmes has trouble deciphering the riddle. Holmes says, “I had thought that it meant that we were to dig, but now, of course, I saw at once that I was wrong” (Doyle, 1994, p. 209). With Brunton being able to decode the ritual, readers learn that Brunton is very intelligent and can match up to Holmes’ intelligence making him a worthy opponent to Holmes. However, Brunton is not able to escape Holmes because he is already dead for some unknown reason (Doyle, 1994, p. 210). Rachel does not seem to be that worthy of an opponent to Holmes because all readers learn about Rachel is that she was engaged to Brunton and may have helped him in solving the crime. If little is known about Rachel, then how can readers be for sure that she was a worthy opponent to Holmes? Therefore, Brunton seems to be the worthiest adversary to Holmes due to him being able to solve the Musgrave Ritual, and battling Holmes’
