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
William Mycroft last significant cricketer who took more wickets than he scored runs. Mycroft was born in Brimington, Derbyshire, the son of George Mycroft and his first wife Sabra Allen. His father was an ironstone and coal miner who kept the Red Lion public house at Brimington. In 1861 Mycroft himself was an ironstone miner and by 1881 he was running a public house at 10 Tapton Lane, Chesterfield. Mycroft made his first-class debut for Derbyshire in the 1873 season against Lancashire when he took six wickets. The club played two matches in the season and Mycroft topped the bowling count with