Armchair detective Armchair detective An armchair detective is a fictional investigator who does not personally visit a crime scene or interview witnesses; instead, he or she either reads the story of the crime in a newspaper or has it recounted by another person. As the armchair detective never sees any of the investigation, the reader can attempt to solve the mystery on the same terms as the detective. The phrase possibly originates in a Sherlock Holmes story from 1893, "The Greek Interpreter", in which Holmes says of his brother Mycroft, "If the art of the detective began and ended in reasoning from
The Confessions of Mycroft Holmes: A Paper Chase The Confessions of Mycroft Holmes: A Paper Chase The Confessions of Mycroft Holmes: A Paper Chase is the title of a 2001 novel by Marcel Theroux. It was published in the United Kingdom in 2002 as The Paperchase. The protagonist is an Anglo-American journalist, Damien March, who inherits a dilapidated mansion in the United States on the death of his uncle, Patrick. Upon taking up residence, he discovers several short stories featuring Mycroft Holmes, which lead him to investigate the relationship between his father, mother and uncle. The novel was named the winner of the Somerset Maugham Award in 2002.