The Adventure of The Bruce-Partington Plans - Commentary

Commentary

This Sherlock Holmes story is one of four in which Holmes's brother Mycroft is mentioned. Mycroft appears as a major character in "The Adventure of the Greek Interpreter" and in this story. He also appears as a minor character in "The Final Problem", (as Watson's cab driver), and is only referred to in "The Adventure of the Empty House". In this story, the reader learns that Mycroft's government job is considerably more important than Holmes earlier let on in "The Adventure of the Greek Interpreter". Holmes even says that his brother sometimes is the British Government.

Holmes is mentioned as writing "a monograph upon the Polyphonic Motets of Lassus", which is, in the story, "said by experts to be the last word upon the subject".

Hugo Oberstein is one of the few minor characters in the Holmes stories who is brought back and used for more important reasons in a second story. He first appears in The Adventure of the Second Stain as one of three possible spies that a missing foreign office document may have ended up with.