In Arthur Conan Doyle’s “The Adventure of the Crooked Man,” Colonel Barclay’s first name is James.
Colonel James Barclay is found dead at his home in Aldershot, and suspicion initially falls on his wife, Nancy. The couple had a tense argument shortly before the death, but the circumstances are complicated by a locked room, an unusual visitor, and a strange animal.
Holmes reconstructs the past relationship between Nancy Barclay and Henry Wood. Wood’s physical appearance has been changed by illness and hardship, which explains the story’s title and the misleading impression created by the evidence. The case ultimately reveals that Barclay’s death was connected to shock rather than a conventional murder.
The story was first published in 1903 and later collected in The Return of Sherlock Holmes. Readers sometimes confuse Colonel James Barclay with Henry Wood, the man from his earlier life.