Sherlock Holmes Codexery

The Red Circle

An Italian brotherhood bound by silence and severed only by blood.

The Red Circle is a secret Italian criminal organization in "The Adventure of the Red Circle". Gennaro Lucca had been involved in it and decided to leave in spite of the threatened consequences. He and his wife Emilia fled Italy for New York, but the vicious killer Giuseppe Gorgiano, out to kill Gennaro for betraying the Red Circle, tracked him down, and the couple sought refuge in London.

Quick Facts

Author
Arthur Conan Doyle
Series
His Last Bow
Published
1911
Preceded by
The Adventure of the Devil's Foot
Followed by
The Disappearance of Lady Frances Carfax

Lore & Background

The case begins when Mrs. Warren, a landlady, comes to 221B Baker Street with questions about her lodger, whom neither she, her husband nor their servant girl has seen. Holmes suspects that messages are being sent to the lodger; spying on the room, he and Watson find that she is a young woman, and that evening they watch her confederate signal with a waving candle. She is Emilia Lucca, and the confederate is her husband Gennaro.

Reader's Guide

Holmes and Watson meet Inspector Gregson and Leverton, a Pinkerton detective from the United States, who are lying in wait for Gorgiano. In the room the signals came from they find Gorgiano dead on the floor, impaled with a large knife. Gregson takes Emilia down to the police station.

More in Criminals & Organizations

Elsewhere in Sherlock Holmes

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