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
Frank Mycroft Frank Mycroft Frank Mycroft (30 June 1873 – 26 September 1900) was an English cricketer who played for Derbyshire between 1893 and 1895. Mycroft was born in Shirland Toadhole Furnace, Derbyshire, the son of Matthew Mycroft, a farmer of , and his wife Eliza. Mycroft started playing for Derbyshire in the 1893 season before they were included in the County Championship. He was a wicket-keeper for the club and played in two first-class matches both against Yorkshire in the 1894 and 1895 seasons, standing in for the regular wicket-keeper William Storer. Mycroft was a left-handed batsman who was last man