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Joan Garrideb is the wife of John Garrideb, a former soldier living in a three-storey house in the East End of London.
Keeping up appearances[]
Unable to afford a maid of their own, the Garridebs rented out rooms on the ground and first floors and arranged for Joan to masquerade as John's maid, with their marriage unknown to most people. As they took in tenants, they discovered that their gas lamps would dim for a short time whenever another gas lamp in the house was used. At one point, Joan convinced Soseki Natsume, one of the Garridebs' tenants, to try riding a bicycle.
A woman scorned[]
- Main article: The Adventure of the Clouded Kokoro
Her and John's wedding picture
One day, John returned home with a book from a secondhand bookstore. A love letter from "Maria" to "James" was found inside, convincing Joan that John was cheating on her. John tried to assure her that the love letter had been there when he bought it, but the two of them got into a heated argument. A candle was knocked over, which burned the carpet, forcing John to open the window. This did not deter Joan, however, who threw various items at him until her anger was sated.
The next morning, consulting detective Herlock Sholmes showed up with the Metropolitan Police Service, who promptly arrested Natsume on suspicion of stabbing Olive Green. The stabbing had occurred around the time of the feud between the Garridebs the day before. Sholmes also appeared the next day to investigate Natsume's room further, followed by lawyer Ryunosuke Naruhodo, who was considering taking Natsume's case. Joan tried to avoid revealing anything about the gas lamps and the quarrel, even interrupting John when he tried to divulge information. However, Naruhodo and Sholmes were too persistent, and their dance of deduction managed to unearth the truth about the "maid" and the Garridebs' fight. In the end, John lamented that he had lost his favourite book during the course of the fight.
Naruhodo took the case to trial the next day, with Joan serving as one of the jurors. He theorized that a book that Green had been found holding was actually John's lost book, thrown out the window. The implied accusation dawned on Joan that the jackknife involved in the stabbing had also been thrown from the window, but she furiously denied involvement and convinced her fellow jurors to lean guilty. Nonetheless, Naruhodo built his argument up starting with the summation examination, solving all of the issues with his reasoning until Joan had no other choice but to take the stand. Finally, Naruhodo found a fragment of metal inside John's pipe, which matched the jackknife, showing that the knife had hit the pipe before exiting the window and hitting Green. Joan fainted begging for forgiveness and was carried to the infirmary, with John taking her place as juror for the final not guilty verdict.
John has been meeting with Joan every day since she got arrested despite running out of conversation topics.
Personality[]
At first glance, Joan would appear to convey the stereotype of an actual maid, quiet, reserved, addressing and speaking to others with respect albeit silent judgement. In reality, Joan was a fierce housewife, married to John, who undoubtedly had the dominant hand in her marriage. She would often pour hot tea on John's lap whenever he would explain too much, sometimes going as far as to slap him on the face with such a strength that it would leave a handprint on John's face, and generally kept a suspicious behavior around many people, being unapologetically nosy. Joan, alongside her husband, demonstrated that they would rather lie than to accept certain awkward facts, such as Joan pretending to be a maid in order to keep up their appearance and not look poor. Although Joan admitted to her crime only when she was cornered, she was apologetic and regretted everything up until that point, including the abuse she put her husband through, and said sorry to him before passing out in the courtroom.
Wood carving and leatherwork are among Joan's hobbies. She buys low-quality knives in bulk because she and John are always breaking and losing them.
Name[]
- Japanese/English - Jōn Garidebu (ジョーン・ガリデブ)/Joan Garrideb:
- Her name comes from the Holmes' story "The Adventure of the Three Garridebs".
- Alternatively, "gari" (ガリ) means "flesh and bones", while "debu" (デブ) means "fat," alluding to her and John's builds.
Development[]
- Joan Garrideb's face and headdress and similarly shaped like the sun, much like how her husband, John, has a head similar to a crescent moon. In her original design, Joan looked even more like the sun.