What would you like to read?Search books, authors, genres, shelves, users...
Search books, authors, genres, shelves, users...Search books, authors, genres, shelves, users...
What would you like to read?Search books, authors, genres, shelves, users...
Search books, authors, genres, shelves, users...Search books, authors, genres, shelves, users...
1917
Arthur Conan Doyle
1917
A collection of detective stories written in the early 20th century. The volume follows Sherlock Holmes, with Dr. Watson narrating later cases that range from classic murders to shadowy international intrigue. Expect taut puzzles, crisp deductions, and a tone that edges toward wartime espionage alongside familiar Scotland Yard figures. The opening of the collection begins with Watson’s note that Holmes is alive, semi-retired by the sea, and briefly reactivated as war looms, then shifts to The Adventure of Wisteria Lodge. Holmes receives a telegram from the respectable John Scott Eccles, who reports that after dining and staying with a charming Spaniard, Aloysius Garcia, he awoke to find the entire household vanished; moments later the police announce Garcia has been found brutally murdered. A cryptic note about “our colors, green and white” points Holmes to a clandestine rendezvous and suggests Eccles was meant to provide an alibi. At Wisteria Lodge they uncover eerie signs of ritual (a shrunken fetish, a slaughtered white cock, blood, burnt bones) and evidence of a gigantic intruder; Inspector Baynes theatrically arrests a hulking mulatto as a ruse. Holmes traces the note to a nearby mansion, High Gable, ruled by the secretive “Henderson” and his feline secretary, and suspects the governess, Miss Burnett, wrote it—only for her to disappear. Before a planned break-in, an ex-servant rescues the drugged governess; Baynes reveals “Henderson” is Don Murillo, the deposed tyrant known as San Pedro’s Tiger, and Miss Burnett begins explaining her personal motive rooted in Murillo’s past crimes.
