Inspector Baynes of the Surrey police force is the only uniformed officer in the series to have ever matched Sherlock Holmes in his investigative skills.
In the story, the reader finds that even despite working in different lines, they both arrive at the same conclusion and solve the mystery at the same exact time. In fact, Baynes had mislead even Holmes as he used a method similar to one that Holmes often used when he arrested the wrong man and provided inaccurate information to the press in order to lull the true criminal into a false sense of security. Holmes congratulated Baynes and he believed that he would go very far in his profession.
Adaptations[]
- In the 1988 episode of the Granada Television series that adapted the Wisteria Lodge story, inspector Baynes was portrayed by well-known English actor Freddie Jones.
- Baynes appears in the video game The Testament of Sherlock Holmes where he is revealed to be working for James Moriarty. Baynes is eventually killed by none other than Sherlock Holmes.