This audiobook is narrated by an AI Voice. *A Case of Identity* is another razor-sharp Sherlock Holmes mystery from Arthur Conan Doyle’s *The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes*, a masterful study of deception, disguise and human self-delusion.
At 221B Baker Street, a distressed young typist named Mary Sutherland seeks Sherlock Holmes’ help. She tells Watson and Holmes the strange story of her fiancé, Hosmer Angel. The pair met at a ball, fell in love, and became engaged. Quiet, soft-spoken, and faintly mysterious, Hosmer insisted on secrecy, communicating mostly by typed letters.
On their wedding day at a London church, Hosmer Angel vanished without a trace. He stepped into a four-wheeled cab and never emerged. Heartbroken, Mary fears some terrible misfortune has befallen her beloved, and begs Holmes to discover what became of him.
Holmes quickly notices a string of odd details: Hosmer’s carefully disguised features, his whispered voice, tinted spectacles, and the typed signature on every letter. Piece by piece, his deductive logic unravels a cruel scheme. The shocking truth reveals that the missing groom is far closer to Mary than she could ever imagine, motivated by greed and a desire to keep hold of her yearly income.
Though Holmes exposes the whole fraud, he faces a bitter truth: the law offers no punishment for the perpetrator, and breaking Mary’s heartfelt illusion may cause her more pain than the mystery itself. Witty, compact and psychologically astute, this classic tale showcases Conan Doyle’s gift for tight plotting and Sherlock Holmes’ legendary powers of observation.
