DRAMATIS PERSONAE
• VIOLET HUNTER, a governess who consults Holmes
• JEPHRO RUECASTLE, hired Violet
• MRS. RUECASTLE, second wife of Mr. Ruecastle
• EDWARD RUECASTLE, young son of Mr. and Mrs. Ruecastle whom Violet is to govern. A spoiled, ill-natured lad whose chief amusement is torturing small animals. His father finds this behavior quaint.
• ALICE RUECASTLE, son of Mr. Ruecastle by his first wife. Alice has an inheritance from her mother which is independent of her father.
• MR. TOLLER, groom for the Ruecastles. A heavy drinker.
• MRS. TOLLER, his wife.MR. FOWLER, a seaman. Beloved of Alice
• CARLO, a vicious mastiff
• MRS. STOPER, runs an employment agency for governesses.
• WESTWAYS, the agency run by Mrs. Stoper.
• COL. SPENCE MUNRO, Violet worked for him until he was transferred to Halifax
• LORD SOUTHERTON, owns the land adjacent to Copper Beeches.

SUMMARY

Violet has lost her position with Col. Munro and has applied to Westways for a position. There she meets Ruecastle who offers her over twice what she was earning before. However he tells her that he wants her to have her hair cut short and that he might require her to wear a blue dress of which he is very fond, but will not require her to do anything unbecoming a lady. Violet smells a rat and she doesn’t want to cut off her hair so she hesitates. Mrs. Stoper tells her this is the opportunity of a lifetime. Violet has no living relations so she asks Holmes what to do. She has already decided to do it. Holmes says, “It is not a position I should want a sister of mine to accept.” He promises to come and help her if she sends him a telegram.

She wires two weeks later and has Holmes and Watson meet her at the Black Swan Hotel in Manchester. She tells Holmes that the Ruecastles have on several occasions required her to wear the blue dress and to sit prominently in a bay window with her back to it. There she is amused to laughter and reads to them. She conceals a piece of mirror in her hanky and sees a bearded man standing in the road. She is asked to stand and face him and to then motion for him to go away. She does so and Mrs. Ruecastle quickly pulls down the blind.

In the train, Holmes tells Watson that he has formed “seven separate explanations of the facts as they are known.” It is obvious that Violet has been hired to impersonate someone who is being held prisoner in the room. The Ruecastles are going out for the evening. Mr. Toller is on a drinking binge. This means that he will not let Carlo out of his pen. Violet says that she will send Mrs. Toller into the cellar on an errand and lock her in. Then they will be able to free the prisoner.

They break into the secret room only to find it empty, the occupant having escaped via a skylight onto the roof and a light ladder to the ground. At this point, Ruecastle returns and Holmes accuses him of kidnapping. Ruecastle accuses him of the same thing and goes to release the dog. Holmes locks the exterior doors and after Ruecastle releases Carlo, the dog turns on him. Watson blows the dog’s brains out and carries Ruecastle to the sofa. Violet lets Mrs. Toller out of the cellar and she tells them that Fowler has bribed her to put the ladder up and that he and Alice have made a get-away. She said Rucastle wanted Alice to sign her inheritance over to him, but she refused.

The case being solved, Holmes loses all interest in Violet, much to Watson’s disappointment. Ruecastle survived, but was a broken man. The Tollers remained in his employ. Alice and Fowler were married and he accepted a government appointment on the island of Mauritius.

OTHER CASES REFERRED TO
• King of Bohemia
• Mary Sutherland
• Man with twisted lip
• Noble bachelor
• Blue carbuncle

DISGUISES
None

BRILLIANT DEDUCTIONS AND OTHER BITS
• Holmes formed seven possible explanations for the Ruecastles’ behavior.
• Official Abbreviation: COPP
• The Adventure Of The Copper Beeches was first published in the Strand Magazine, June 1892