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Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
(1859-1930)

Creator of Detective Sherlock Holmes

Arthur Conan Doyle was a Scottish author most noted for his stories about the detective Sherlock Holmes and his sidekick Dr. Watson.  Holmes is a brilliant London-based detective famous for his intellectual ability, and renowned for his skillful use of "deductive reasoning" and astute observation to solve difficult cases. He is also a master of disguise.  He appears as a seaman in The Sign of Four, an opium addict in The Man with the Twisted Lip, an old Italian priest in The Adventure of the Final Problem, a plumber in The Adventure of Charles Augustus Milverton and even as a woman in The Adventure of the Mazarin Stone.

Here is a list of Sherlock Holmes novels with a brief description:

• A Study in Scarlet (1887) In the first of all the Sherlock Holmes stories, Dr. John Watson, discharged from military service after suffering severe wounds, is at a loose end until a chance encounter leads him to take rooms with a remarkable young man. The arrogant, irascible Sherlock Holmes is a master chemist, a talented musician and an expert on all aspects of crime. And when Watson is drawn into the investigation of a bizarre murder in which Holmes is involved, he is unaware that it is the beginning of the most famous partnership in the history of criminal detection.

• The Sign of the Four (1890) It is in this, the second Holmes novel, that the great detective comes fully to life—not only as a melancholic and an inscrutable master of deduction, but also as an incurable drug addict.  Mary Morstan comes to Holmes in the hope that he will be able to solve a mystery. Ten years earlier her father, Captain Arthur Morstan, had returned to London on leave from his regiment in India where it is said that he and one Thadeus Sholto, "came into possession of a considerable treasure." By the time his daughter arrived at his hotel, he had vanished without a trace.

• The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes (1892) Contains 12 stories published in The Strand between July 1891 and December 1892 with original illustrations by Sidney Paget.

  • A Scandal in Bohemia - Holmes is called upon by a masked gentleman introducing himself as Count Von Kramm, an agent for a wealthy client, but Holmes quickly deduces that he is in fact Wilhelm Gottsreich Sigismond von Ormstein, Grand Duke of Cassel-Felstein, the hereditary King of Bohemia. The King admits this, tearing off his mask.
  • The Adventure of the Red-Headed League - Set in 1890, a London business man named Jabez Wilson, a man with red hair, comes to consult Holmes and Watson. He tells them that his young assistant, Vincent Spaulding, some weeks ago had shown him, and urged him to respond, to a newspaper want-ad offering work to only red-headed male applicants. The next morning, Wilson had waited in a long line of fellow red-headed men, was interviewed and was the only applicant hired, because none of the other applicants had hair to match Wilson's red locks.
  • A Case of Identity - Set in 1888, the story revolves around the case of Miss Mary Sutherland, a woman with a substantial income from the interest on a fund set up for her. She is engaged to a quiet Londoner who has recently disappeared. Sherlock Holmes's detective powers are barely challenged as this turns out to be quite an elementary case for him, much as it puzzles Watson.
  • The Boscombe Valley Mystery - Lestrade summons Holmes to a community in Herefordshire, where a local land owner has been murdered outdoors. The deceased's estranged son is strongly implicated. Holmes quickly determines that a mysterious third man may be responsible for the crime, unraveling a thread involving a secret criminal past, thwarted love, and blackmail.
  • The Five Orange Pips - A young Sussex gentleman named John Openshaw has a strange story: in 1869 his uncle Elias Openshaw had suddenly come back to England to settle on an estate at Horsham, West Sussex after living for years in the United States as a planter in Florida and serving as a Colonel in the Confederate Army. Not being married, Elias had allowed his nephew to stay at his estate. Strange incidents have occurred; one is that although John could go anywhere in the house he could never enter a locked room containing his uncle's trunks. Another peculiarity was that in March 1883 a letter postmarked from Pondicherry, India arrived for the Colonel inscribed only "K.K.K." with five orange pips enclosed.
  • The Man with the Twisted Lip - Dr. Watson is called upon late at night by a female friend of his wife. Her husband has been absent for several days and, as he is an opium addict, she is sure he has been indulging in a lengthy drug binge in a dangerous East End opium den. Frantic with worry, she seeks Dr. Watson's help in fetching him home. Watson does this, but he also finds his friend Sherlock Holmes in the den, disguised as an old man, trying to extract information about a new case from the addicts in the den.
  • The Adventure of the Blue Carbuncle - Watson visits his friend Holmes at Christmas time and finds him contemplating a battered old hat, brought to him by the commissionaire Peterson after it and a Christmas goose had been dropped by a man in a scuffle with some street ruffians. Peterson takes the goose home to eat it, but comes back later with a carbuncle. His wife has found it in the bird's crop (throat). Holmes makes some interesting deductions concerning the owner of the hat from simple observations of its condition, conclusions amply confirmed when an advertisement for the owner produces the man himself: Henry Baker.
  • The Adventure of the Speckled Band - A young woman named Helen Stoner consults the detective Sherlock Holmes about the suspicious death of her sister, Julia. One night, after conversing with her twin sister about her upcoming wedding day, Julia screamed and came to the hallway where Helen came out to see her, in Julia's dying words she said "it was the band, the speckled band!" Julia had been engaged to be married and, had she lived, would have received an annual 250 GBP annuity from her late mother's income. Now Helen is engaged to be married. Holmes' investigation of the mother's estate reveals that its value has decreased significantly, and if both daughters had married, Dr. Roylott, Helen's ill-tempered and violent stepfather, would be left with very little, while the marriage of even one would be crippling. Therefore, the main suspicion falls on him.
  • The Adventure of the Engineer's Thumb - The story, set in 1889, mainly consists of a young London consultant hydraulic engineer, Mr. Victor Hatherley, recounting strange happenings of the night before, first to Dr. Watson who dresses the stump where Mr. Hatherley's thumb has been cut off, and then to Sherlock Holmes himself.
  • The Adventure of the Noble Bachelor - The bride of the fictional Lord Robert St. Simon disappears on the day of their marriage. She attends (and participates in) the wedding, but disappears from the reception. The events of the wedding day are most perplexing to Lord Robert as it seemed to him that his bride, Miss Hatty Doran of San Francisco, was full of enthusiasm about their impending marriage. St. Simon tells Holmes that he noticed a change in the young lady's mood just after the wedding ceremony.
  • The Adventure of the Beryl Coronet - A banker, Mr. Alexander Holder of Streatham makes a loan of £50,000 to a socially prominent client, who leaves the Beryl Coronet — one of the most valuable public possessions in existence — as collateral. Holder feels that he must not leave this rare and precious piece of jewelry in his personal safe at the bank, and so he takes it home with him to lock it up there. He is awoken in the night by a noise, enters his dressing room, and is horrified to see his son Arthur with the coronet in his hands, apparently trying to bend it.  Three beryls are missing from it. In a panic, he travels to see Holmes, who agrees to take the case.
  • The Adventure of the Copper Beeches - Violet Hunter visits Holmes, asking whether she should accept a job as governess; a job with very strange conditions. She is enticed by the phenomenal salary which, as originally offered, is £100 a year, later increased to £120 when Miss Hunter baulks at having to cut her long hair short. This is only one of many peculiar provisions to which she must agree. The employer, Jephro Rucastle, seems pleasant enough, yet Miss Hunter obviously has her suspicions.

• The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes (1894) - Contains 12 stories published in The Strand as further episodes of the Adventures between December 1892 and November 1893 with original illustrations by Sidney Paget.

  • The Adventure of Silver Blaze - "Silver Blaze" focuses on the disappearance of the eponymous race horse named Silver Blaze, a famous winner, on the eve of an important race and on the apparent murder of its trainer, John Straker.
  • The Adventure of the Cardboard Box - Quite a stir is caused in Croydon when a 50-year-old spinster, Miss Susan Cushing, receives a parcel in the post which turns out to contain two severed human ears packed in coarse salt. The indefatigable though unimaginative Inspector Lestrade of Scotland Yard suspects a prank by three medical students whom Miss Cushing was forced to evict, owing to their unruly behaviour. The parcel was sent from Belfast, after all, and that was from where one of the former boarders had travelled. Holmes, however, upon examining the parcel himself, is convinced that they are dealing with a serious crime.
  • The Adventure of the Yellow Face - Sherlock Holmes returns home from a walk with Dr. Watson to find he has missed a visitor, but that the caller has left his pipe behind. From it, Holmes deduces that he was disturbed of mind (because he forgot the pipe); that he valued it highly (because he had repaired, rather than replaced, it when it was broken); that he was muscular, left-handed, had excellent teeth, was careless in his habits and was well-off. When the visitor, Mr. Grant Munro returns, Holmes and Watson hear the story of Munro's deception by his wife. She had been previously married in America, but her husband and child had died of yellow fever, whereupon she returned to England and met and married Munro. Their marriage had been blissful until she asked for a hundred pounds and begged him not to ask why. Two months later, Mrs. Munro was caught conducting secret liaisons with the occupants of a cottage near the Munro house in Norbury.
  • The Adventure of the Stockbroker's Clerk - A young clerk, Hall Pycroft, consults Holmes with his suspicions concerning a company that has offered him a very well-paid job.
  • The Adventure of the Gloria Scott (Holmes' first case, described to Watson) - In his college days, Holmes spent a month with his friend, Victor Trevor, at his father's estate in Norfolk. While there, Holmes amazed his host, Victor's father, who was a Justice of the Peace and a landowner besides. He had made his fortune in the goldfields in Australia. One of Holmes's deductions was that the elder Mr. Trevor was once connected with someone with the initials J. A. whom he wanted to forget. His host then passed out on the table. Holmes had touched a sore spot, and possibly did not believe the old man's explanation once he had come back to himself that J. A. had been an old lover.
  • The Adventure of the Musgrave Ritual (another early case, told by Holmes to Watson) - • In the story, Holmes recounts to Watson the events arising after a visit from a university acquaintance, Reginald Musgrave. Musgrave visits Holmes after the disappearance Rachel Howells, a maid, and Richard Brunton, his longtime butler. The pair vanished after Musgrave had dismissed Brunton for secretly reading a family document, the Musgrave Ritual. The Ritual, which dates from the 17th century, is a riddle set in verse form.
  • The Adventure of the Reigate Squire - Watson takes Holmes to a friend's estate near Reigate in Surrey to rest after a rather strenuous case in France. Holmes finds that his services are needed here, but he also finds that his recent illness serves him well. His host is Colonel Hayter. There has recently been a burglary at the nearby Acton estate in which the thieves stole a motley assortment of things, even a ball of twine, but nothing terribly valuable. Then one morning, the Colonel's butler tells news of a murder at another nearby estate, the Cunninghams'. The victim is William Kirwan, the coachman. Inspector Forrester has taken charge of the investigation, and there is one physical clue: a torn piece of paper found in William's hand with a few words written on it.
  • The Adventure of the Crooked Man - Holmes calls on Watson late one evening to tell him about a case that he has been working on, and also to invite him to be a witness to the final stage of the investigation. Colonel James Barclay, of The Royal Mallows based at Aldershot Camp, is dead, apparently by violence, and his wife Nancy is the prime suspect.
  • The Adventure of the Resident Patient - Doctor Percy Trevelyan brings Holmes an unusual problem. Having been a brilliant student but a poor man, Dr. Trevelyan has found himself a participant in an unusual business arrangement. A man named Blessington, claiming to have some money to invest, has set Dr. Trevelyan up in premises with a prestigious address and paid all his expenses. In return, he demands three-fourths of all the money that the doctor’s practice earns, which he collects every evening.
  • The Adventure of the Greek Interpreter - Mr. Melas, a Greek interpreter, tells a rather unnerving experience to Mycroft Holmes. Mycroft, like his younger brother Sherlock Holmes, is remarkably endowed with powers of observation and deduction. Sherlock claims that his brother’s powers actually outstrip his own, but he is a lazy, apathetic character who rarely uses his powers to their full potential. Melas was called upon one evening by a man named Harold Latimer to go to a house to do some translation in a business matter. On the way there in Latimer’s coach, Melas noticed that the windows were papered over so that he could not see where he was. Latimer also produced a bludgeon, laying it beside him as an implied threat. Melas protested, saying that what Latimer was doing was unlawful. The kidnapper replied that he would make it up to Melas, but also threatened him with unspecified retribution should the evening’s business ever be made public.
  • The Adventure of the Naval Treaty - Dr. Watson receives a letter, which he then refers to Holmes, from an old schoolmate, now a Foreign Office employee from Woking who has had an important naval treaty stolen from his office. It disappeared while Mr. Percy Phelps had stepped out of his office momentarily late in the evening to see about some coffee that he had ordered. His office has two entrances, each joined by a stairway to a single landing. The commissionaire kept watch at the main entrance. There was no-one watching at the side entrance. Phelps also knew that his fiancée's brother was in town and that he might drop by. Phelps was alone in the office.
  • The Adventure of the Final Problem (Watson reports the death of Holmes) - This story, set in 1891, introduces Holmes' greatest opponent, the criminal mastermind Professor Moriarty. Holmes arrives at Dr. Watson's one evening in a somewhat agitated state and with abraded knuckles. He has apparently escaped three murder attempts that day after a visit from Professor Moriarty who warned him to withdraw from his pursuit of justice against him to avoid any regrettable outcome. First, while Sherlock Holmes was passing a corner of a street, a cab suddenly rushed towards him; Holmes managed to survive the attack. Second, while Holmes was walking on the street, a man dropped a piece of brick from the roof of one of the houses, just missing the detective. He then called the police to search the whole area but he could not prove anything. Third, he was attacked by a rough looking man with a heavy stick. Sherlock Holmes fought the brute off and handed him to the police but still could not prove that he is related to the criminal mastermind.

• The Hound of the Baskervilles (1902) - The curse of the Baskervilles began in the 17th Century, when Sir Hugo swore he would give his soul to possess the beautiful daughter of a yeoman. He captured her, but she escaped. He saddled his horse and chased the girl over the moors until she dropped dead from exhaustion . . . and then a black hell-hound appeared, with eyes like fire, and ripped out Hugo's throat. Now, years later, the Hound has returned. Already it has caused the death of Hugo's descendant, Sir Charles Baskerville. Can Sherlock Holmes stop the curse before it claims Henry Baskerville, the heir of Sir Charles?

• The Return of Sherlock Holmes (1905) - Contains 13 stories published in The Strand between October 1903 and January 1905 with original illustrations by Sidney Paget.

  • The Adventure of the Empty House (the return of Holmes) - Holmes dramatically returns from the dead, or from being presumed dead. He's not a zombie. He and Watson reunite to take down a would-be assassin of Holmes, Professor Moriarty, and murderer of Ronald Adair, Colonel Moran. With Moran in jail Holmes can now safely return to London and resume his detective business.
  • The Adventure of the Norwood Builder - A young man named John Hector McFarlane is falsely accused of murdering Jonas Oldacre. Despite his protestations of innocence, there's no evidence to be found in his defense. Until Holmes takes the case, of course. By using some forensic science and staging a fake fire, Holmes is able to flush Oldacre out of hiding. Oldacre tried to revenge himself upon McFarlane's parents by faking his death and framing McFarlane.
  • The Adventure of the Dancing Men - This one is not nearly as fun as it sounds. Watson and Holmes do not go clubbing. They do, however, stop a man from stalking a woman. Hilton Cubitt hires Holmes to help him find out who has been sending him weird encoded messages that are freaking out his wife. Holmes cracks the code, but arrives too late to prevent the death of Hilton and the attempted suicide of his wife. Who sent the messages and killed Hilton? It was Mrs. Cubitt's ex-boyfriend, a criminal from Chicago who wanted to win her back. He goes to jail and Elsie Cubitt recovers from her suicide attempt.
  • The Adventure of the Solitary Cyclist - A woman named Violet Smith has had some weird things happen to her lately, and she hires Holmes and Watson to get to the bottom of things. Violet recently came in contact with two friends of her deceased uncle. One of the men, Mr. Woodley, is sleazy; the other, Mr. Carruthers, hires Violet as a governess and then proposes to her. Poor Violet is already engaged and wants them to leave her alone. She also has a strange guy following her on her bike when she rides to the train-station after work. Holmes connects it all together and arrives in time to save Violet after she's kidnapped by Mr. Woodley. Turns out Violet inherited a lot of money from her dead uncle and Woodley wanted to marry her so he could get it. Carruthers was in on the scheme, but ended up genuinely falling for Violet. He was also the mystery biker who tried to protect her from Woodley.
  • The Adventure of the Priory School - A young heir goes missing from a fancy boarding school, and the head of the school hires Holmes and Watson to find him. During their search they find a missing professor dead and fear for the boy's safety. Their search leads them back around to the boy's own father, the Duke of Holdernesse, and his secretary James Wilder. When confronted, the Duke makes a shocking confession. James Wilder is no secretary at all, but the Duke's illegitimate son. The supposed secretary hired a man named Reuben Hayes, to help him kidnap his younger half-brother in an effort to force his dad into making him a legitimate heir. The young boy is recovered safely and is reunited with his parents.
  • The Adventure of Black Peter - A ship captain named Peter Carey is found dead, stabbed through with a harpoon. Ouch. A police inspector named Stanley Hopkins brings Holmes the case; Hopkins is being mentored by Holmes. Peter Carey was an abusive jerk, so it's not surprising that he has enemies; but his murder is a total mystery. After a stakeout, Holmes, Watson, and Hopkins catch a guy named Neligan returning to the scene of the crime to retrieve some incriminating evidence. He swears he didn't kill Peter though and Holmes believes him. After some more investigating, Holmes catches the real killer: Peter's old first mate, Patrick Cains, who was trying to get in on a financial scheme that Peter had going.
  • The Adventure of Charles Augustus Milverton - Milverton is a notorious blackmailer who has ruined lots of people and caused many more grief. Holmes is hired by a lady who is being blackmailed by Milverton, and Holmes is determined to stop this guy once and for all. But Milverton is very crafty and Holmes can't get anything on him. Finally, Holmes and Watson break into Milverton's house in an effort to get the incriminating letters back for their client. While there, they end up witnessing Milverton's murder by an angry mystery woman. The two hide what they know from the cops and never reveal the identity of Milverton's killer.
  • The Adventure of the Six Napoleons - No, Napoleon wasn't cloned here. Though that would be pretty awesome/weird. There's someone going around London busting statues of Napoleon. But what starts off as a weird nuisance quickly turns deadly after a statue owner finds a dead guy on his doorstep and a broken statue outside. Holmes figures out that the statues were all made by the same person, and he connects the dots back to an Italian named Beppo, who hid something in one of the statues. After catching Beppo, Holmes buys the last Napoleon statue and busts it open himself, revealing a famous pearl hidden inside.
  • The Adventure of the Three Students - While doing some research in a university town, a professor approaches Holmes and Watson for help. The professor is going to administer a scholarship exam in Greek the next day, and he says that someone has broken into his rooms and seen – maybe even copied – the exam. It's a cheating scandal! Holmes narrows down the suspects to three students who live nearby. He stages a trap for Gilchrist, the least likely suspect. Gilchrist confesses and says he's leaving school to get a job. Scandal averted.
  • The Adventure of the Golden Pince-Nez (19th century glasses that sit on the nose and don't have any earpieces) - In this story Stanley Hopkins once again calls Holmes and Watson in on a baffling case. A young guy named Willoughby Smith, an assistant to a Professor Coram, has been murdered. Anyone could have entered the house, killed him, and run away. A pair of glasses are found on the body. After realizing that the killer needed glasses, Holmes puts other clues together and figures out that the murderer is still in the house. He finds her, a Russian woman named Anna. Anna is married to Professor Coram, also Russian, who betrayed his friends and fled the country. Anna came here to find evidence to free one of her friends form jail in Russia. She killed Willoughby by accident. After her confession she dies from a poison capsule that she took earlier.
  • The Adventure of the Missing Three-Quarter - A young rugby player named Cyril Overton barges in on Holmes and Watson and asks for help finding his missing teammate before their big game. The missing teammate is Godfrey Staunton and he disappeared with an older guy after sending a mysterious telegram. Holmes tracks him to a nearby area but is stonewalled by a Dr. Armstrong, who is protecting Staunton. Holmes finally figures out his location and discovers that Staunton was secretly married, and that his wife had fallen ill and recently died. Dr. Armstrong was a friend and tried to protect the young couple from scrutiny. Holmes and Watson leave the grieving Godfrey in peace and return home.
  • The Adventure of the Abbey Grange - Stanley Hopkins returns again and gets Holmes and Watson to help him out on a home invasion/murder case. A woman named Mary Frasier, wife of Sir Eustace Brackenstall, witnessed her husband's murder. She says a gang of men broke into their home, killed her husband, tied her up, and stole some silver dishes. It all seems like a clear-cut case, but Holmes's gut tells him otherwise. After some digging he realizes Mary Frasier is lying and confronts her with evidence that a man named Jack Crocker was involved. Jack confesses all. Turns out Sir Eustace was an abusive husband and that Jack and Mary were really in love. Jack came to see Mary and was confronted by Sir Eustace, whom he killed in self-defense. Afterwards, Jack, Mary, and her maid Theresa covered up the crime. Holmes agrees that Jack was justified and lets him go without reporting it to the police.
  • The Adventure of the Second Stain - Watson and Holmes are hired by the Prime Minister, Lord Bellinger, and the European Secretary, Trelawney Hope, to help recover a stolen political document. If the document gets into the wrong hands, it could spark a war. Holmes and Watson track the document to a spy named Eduardo Lucas, who has recently been murdered by his wife, who actually was married to one of his assumed identities. After some digging, Holmes realizes that Trelawney Hope's wife has the letter. She was being blackmailed and delivered the letter to Eduardo, not realizing the trouble she would cause. After his murder she stole the letter back. Holmes quickly puts it back where it belongs, and the crisis is averted.

• The Valley of Fear (1914) - A coded warning of imminent danger sends Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson to the fortress-like country house of the reclusive Jack Douglas. When they arrive too late to prevent a tragic death, the great detective and his chronicler must follow a series of bewildering clues and find a murderer who has vanished into thin air.

• His Last Bow (1917) - The collection was originally called Reminiscences of Sherlock Holmes and did not contain the actual story His Last Bow, which appeared later. However later editions added it and changed the title. Some recent complete editions have restored the earlier title. The collection contains seven stories published 1908–1913, 1917.

  • The Adventure of Wisteria Lodge - Holmes is visited by a perturbed proper English gentleman, John Scott Eccles, who wishes to discuss something “grotesque”. No sooner has he arrived at 221B Baker Street than Inspector Gregson also shows up, along with Inspector Baynes of the Surrey Constabulary. They wish a statement from Eccles about the murder near Esher last night. A note in the dead man’s pocket indicates that Eccles said that he would be at the victim’s house that night.
  • The Adventure of the Red Circle - Mrs. Warren, a landlady, comes to 221B Baker Street with some questions about her lodger. A youngish, heavily bearded man, who spoke good but accented English came to her and offered double her usual rent on the condition that he get the room on his own terms. He went out the first night that he was there, and came back after midnight when the rest of the household had gone to bed. Since then, neither Mrs. Warren, her husband, or their servant girl have seen him. The lodger insisted on having the Daily Gazette every morning, and sometimes requested other things. All requests were printed on a slip of paper left on a chair outside the room where meals were also left.
  • The Adventure of the Bruce-Partington Plans - The monotony of pea-soup-fog-shrouded London is broken by a sudden visit from Holmes’s brother Mycroft. He has come about some missing, secret submarine plans. Seven of the ten pages — three are still missing — were found with Arthur Cadogan West’s body. He was a young clerk in a government office at Royal Arsenal, Woolwich, whose body was found next to the Underground tracks near the Aldgate tube station, his head crushed. He had little money with him (although there appears to have been no robbery), theatre tickets, and curiously, no Underground ticket. The three missing pages by themselves could enable one of Britain’s enemies to build a Bruce-Partington submarine.
  • The Adventure of the Dying Detective - Dr. Watson is called to 221B Baker Street to tend Holmes, who is apparently dying of a rare Asian disease contracted while he was on a case at Rotherhithe. Watson is shocked, having heard nothing about his friend’s illness. Mrs. Hudson says that he has neither eaten nor drunk anything in three days.
  • The Disappearance of Lady Frances Carfax - Holmes sends Dr. Watson to Lausanne to investigate Lady Frances Carfax's disappearance. Holmes is too busy in London. Lady Frances is a lone, unwed woman denied a rich inheritance on account of her gender. She does, however, carry valuable jewels with her. It is also her habit to write to her old governess, Miss Dobney, every other week, but for the past five weeks, there has not been a word from her. She has left the Hôtel National for parts unknown. Her last two bank transactions were cheques, one to pay her hotel bill, and another for £50 to her maid, Miss Marie Devine.
  • The Adventure of the Devil's Foot - Holmes and Dr. Watson find themselves in Cornwall one spring for the former’s health, but the holiday ends with a bizarre event. Mr. Mortimer Tregennis, a local gentleman, and Mr. Roundhay, the local vicar, come to Holmes to report that Tregennis’s two brothers have gone insane, and his sister has died.
  • His Last Bow - On the eve of the First World War, Von Bork, a German agent, is getting ready to leave England with his vast collection of intelligence, gathered over a four-year period. His wife and household have already left Harwich for Flushing in the Netherlands, leaving only him and his elderly housekeeper. Von Bork and his diplomat friend Baron von Herling disparage their British hosts, having judged them rather negatively. Von Herling is impressed at his friend's collection of vital British military secrets, and tells Von Bork that he will be received in Berlin as a hero. Von Bork indicates that he is waiting for one last transaction with his Irish-American informant Altamont, who will arrive shortly. The treasure will prove rich, Von Bork thinks: naval signals.

• The Case-Book of Sherlock Holmes 1927 - Contains 12 stories published 1921-1927.

  • The Adventure of the Mazarin Stone - Watson arrives at 221B Baker Street to find Holmes in bed at seven in the evening while Billy the page explains that Holmes has been hot on the trail of a missing jewel, a Crown diamond no less, worth about £100,000. He has been disguised as a jobless workman, and even as an old woman while pursuing the thief across London. He has also not been eating, believing that hunger sharpens his wits. The Prime Minister and the Home Secretary have been to see Holmes, along with Lord Cantlemere, who is apparently no great fan of Sherlock Holmes and no believer in his deductive powers. He is opposed to engaging Holmes to recover the precious gem.
  • The Problem of Thor Bridge - Neil Gibson, the Gold King and former Senator for "some Western state", approaches Holmes to investigate the murder of his wife Maria in order to clear his children's governess, Grace Dunbar, of the crime. It soon emerges that Mr. Gibson's marriage had been unhappy- he treated his wife very badly. He had fallen in love with her when he met her in Brazil, but soon realized they had nothing in common. He became attracted to Miss Dunbar; since he could not marry her, he had attempted to please her in other ways- by trying to help people less fortunate than himself. Maria Gibson was found lying in a pool of blood on Thor Bridge with a bullet through the head and note from the governess, agreeing to a meeting at that location, in her hand. A recently discharged revolver with one shot fired is found in Miss Dunbar's wardrobe. Holmes agrees to look at the situation in spite of the damning evidence.
  • The Adventure of the Creeping Man - Mr. Trevor Bennett comes to Holmes with a most unusual problem. He is Professor Presbury's personal secretary, and Mr. Bennett is also engaged to the professor's only daughter, Edith. Professor Presbury is himself engaged to a young lady, Alice Morphy, a colleague's daughter, although he himself is already sixty-one years old. Their impending marriage does not seem to have caused a great scandal; so that is not Mr. Bennett's problem. Nonetheless, the trouble seems to have begun at about the time of Professor Presbury's and Alice's engagement.
  • The Adventure of the Sussex Vampire - Holmes receives two odd letters that make reference to vampires. Mr. Robert Ferguson, who comes to 221B Baker Street the next morning, has become convinced that his Peruvian wife has been sucking their baby son's blood. Several times, she has been caught doing this by the nurse, and she feared at first to tell Mr. Ferguson about it. Indeed, Mrs. Ferguson bribed her to keep quiet.
  • The Adventure of the Three Garridebs - Holmes receives a letter from a Nathan Garrideb of 156 Little Ryder Street,[2] asking for help in a most peculiar quest. He is looking for another man with his unusual surname, for it will mean a $5,000,000 inheritance for him. He has been approached by another man, John Garrideb of Kansas, who says that he needs to find others with the same last name.
  • The Adventure of the Illustrious Client - Sir James Damery comes to see Holmes and Watson about his illustrious client's problem (the client's identity is never revealed to the reader, although Watson finds out at the end of the story). It would seem that old General de Merville's young daughter Violet has fallen madly in love with the roguish and sadistic Austrian Baron Adelbert Gruner, whom both Damery and Holmes are convinced is a murderer. The victim was his last wife, of whose murder he was acquitted owing to a legal technicality and a witness's untimely death. She met her end in the Splügen Pass.
  • The Adventure of the Three Gables - The story begins with a visit to 221B Baker Street from Steve Dixie, a black man and a cowardly ruffian who warns Sherlock Holmes to keep away from Harrow. Watson has no idea what this dimwitted fellow is talking about, but Holmes knows who he is and what the intrusion is all about, and manages to elicit some interesting information from him, knowing that Dixie is easily imposed upon. Ironically, although Dixie has come to intimidate Holmes, Holmes cleverly secures Dixie's future cooperation by threatening to tell what he knows about the suspicious Perkins death involving Dixie. Dixie's boss is Barney Stockdale, and he must somehow be connected with the Harrow Weald case, of which Holmes has just learnt from a message from Mary Maberley, a lady who lives at Three Gables, a house at Harrow Weald.
  • The Adventure of the Blanched Soldier - James M Dodd comes to see Holmes about a missing friend, Godfrey Emsworth. Dodd and Emsworth served together in the Imperial Yeomanry in South Africa during the Second Boer War, which has only just ended. Emsworth was wounded and Dodd has not seen him since the report of his injury. He also has not received any letters from him in six months. Since Emsworth has always been such a good friend, Dodd is inclined to assume that something must be amiss.
  • The Adventure of the Lion's Mane - Holmes is enjoying his retirement in Sussex when one day at the beach, he meets his friend Harold Stackhurst, the headmaster of a nearby preparatory school called The Gables. No sooner have they met than Stackhurst's science master, Fitzroy McPherson, staggers up to them, obviously in agony and wearing only an overcoat and trousers. He collapses, manages to say something about a "lion's mane", and then dies. He is observed to have red welts all over his back, administered by a flexible weapon of some kind, for the marks curve over his shoulder and round his ribs.
  • The Adventure of the Retired Colourman - Sherlock Holmes is hired by a retired art supply dealer from Lewisham, Josiah Amberley, to look into his wife’s disappearance. She has left with a neighbour, Dr. Ray Ernest, taking a sizeable quantity of cash and securities. Amberley wants the two tracked down.
  • The Adventure of the Veiled Lodger - Holmes is visited by Mrs. Merrilow, a landlady from South Brixton who has an unusual lodger who never shows her face. She saw it once accidentally and it was hideously mutilated. This woman, formerly very quiet, has recently taken to cursing in the night, shouting “Murder, murder!” and “You cruel beast! You monster!” Also, her health has taken a turn for the worse, and she is wasting away.
  • The Adventure of Shoscombe Old Place - Head trainer John Mason from Shoscombe Old Place, a racing stable in Berkshire, comes to Holmes about his master, Sir Robert Norberton. Mason thinks he has gone mad. Sir Robert’s sister, Lady Beatrice Falder owns Shoscombe, but it will revert to her late husband’s brother when she dies. The stable has a horse, Shoscombe Prince, who Sir Robert hopes will win the Derby. He would be out of debt if that actually happened. Mason is not quite sure what he wants Holmes to investigate, but a number of odd changes have happened at the stable

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