The Case of Miss Elliot

Infobox Book
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name = The Case of Miss Elliot
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image_caption = Cover of the 1905 1st edition
author = Baroness Orczy
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country = United Kingdom
language = English
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release_date = 1905
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pages =
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preceded_by = The Old Man In the Corner
followed_by = Unravelled Knots
Orczy's first collection of detective stories appeared in 1905 under the title The Case of Miss Elliot and featured one of her many detective characters, The Old Man In the Corner, who solves mysteries without leaving his chair.

This is one of three books of short stories featuring Orczy's armchair detective, and although first published it is second chronologically. The stories follow on from those in The Old Man In the Corner and precede those in Unravelled Knots.

The Old Man In the Corner stories had first appeared in 1902 in "The Royal Magazine", for which the author received the large sum of 60 pounds. The stories were immediately popular, and the public clamored for more.

Plot

Despite his vanity about his own talents, Bill Owen is a nondescript armchair detective. A balding, watery-eyed, mild-mannered little man in violently checked tweed, he haunts a corner of the ABC Teashop on the corner of Norfolk Street and the Strand.

His listener and protégé is the attractive young journalist Polly Burton. Polly brings him details of obscure crimes baffling the police, which he helps her to solve. She is fascinated by the unlikely unravelings she hears, but despite her sarcasm and pride in her own investigative talents she remains the learner, impressed in spite of herself.

Although The Old Man does not hide his upper class attitudes, he sometimes feels sympathy for the criminals.

The Old Man's cases include a wide range of sensational and complex detective puzzles:
* murder ("The Tremarn Case"),
* blackmail ("The Murder of Miss Pebmarsh"),
* perfect alibis ("The Case of Miss Elliott"),
* secret identity ("The Regent's Park Murder"),
* and thefts ("The Affair at the Novelty Theatre").

Film and Other Media

In the 1970s the character appeared in the Thames TV series "The Rivals of Sherlock Holmes", when the case of "The Mysterious Death on the Underground Railway" was dramatized.

A series based on the Orczy stories titled THE TEAHOUSE DETECTIVE was broadcast on BBC Radio 4, starring Bernard Hepton as "The Man in the Corner" and Suzanne Burton as journalist "Polly Burton". Episodes in the series included:

* The Metropolitan Line Murder
* The York Murder
* The Body in the Barge (based on "The Fenchurch Street Murder")
* The de Genneville Peerage
* The Dublin Mystery
* The Endinburgh Mystery
* The Brighton Mystery
* The London Mystery

References

* Allan K. Russell (ed.) "Rivals of Sherlock Holmes" (Castle Books, 1978) ISBN 0-89009-207-9