The Return of Sherlock Holmes

Arthur Conan Doyle's Third Sherlock Holmes Short Story Collection

Dec 27, 2008

The great Sherlock Holmes is back from the dead and is once more devoting his life to solving the seemingly unsolvable crimes that plague London.

Created by Scottish author and physician Arthur Conan Doyle in 1887, Sherlock Holmes was a brilliant London-based consulting detective, famous for his intellectual prowess and powers of deductive reasoning.

The Return of Sherlock Holmes is the third of Conan Doyle’s short story collections and features thirteen mysterious tales:

The Adventure of the Empty House

Although their detective partnership was ended by Holmes’ untimely death at the Reichenbach Falls, Doctor Watson retained an interest in crime and decided to make inquiries into the seemingly motiveless murder of Ronald Adair. While investigating the scene of crime, Watson collides with an elderly gentleman who is later revealed to be Sherlock Holmes in disguise. Holmes had been in hiding as he tried to build a case against Moriarty’s henchman but he is back in London to investigate Ronald Adair’s murder.

Solicitor John McFarlane has been accused of murdering builder Jonas Oldacre. McFarlane had been to Oldacre’s house to assist in drawing up his will and was surprised to learn that Oldacre had made him the sole beneficiary of the will. Their business concluded, McFarlane had returned home and thought no more about Oldacre until he read of his murder, and that fact that he himself was the prime suspect, in the newspaper the following morning.

The Adventure of the Dancing Men

Holmes sets out to crack the code of the little dancing men, a code that is driving Hilton Cubitt and his wife Elsie to distraction.

The Adventure of the Solitary Cyclist

Violet Smith accepted an extremely well-paying job as music teacher to the daughter of Mr Carruthers, an old friend of her uncle. The job had been fairly present until recently when Violet noticed that a strange man on a bicycle follows her every time she cycles to and from the station to visit her mother. She needs Holmes’ help to identify her pursuer.

Thorneycroft Huxtable, the headmaster of an exclusive boy’s school, seeks Holmes’ assistance in solving the kidnapping of one of his pupils.

The Adventure of Black Peter

Forest Row in Weald is the location for the gruesome harpoon murder of sailor Peter Carey and police inspector Stanley Hopkins asks his mentor, Sherlock Holmes, for help in solving the crime.

The Adventure of Charles Augustus Milverton

Holmes is hired by a young debutante to retrieve some compromising letters from blackmailer Charles Augustus Milverton.

The Adventure of the Six Napoleons

Holmes is intrigued by the seemingly trivial problem of a man who smashes busts of Napoleon. Once Holmes realises that the busts all came from the same mould, he is certain that Lestrade’s theory about a Napoleon hating maniac is incorrect and sets out to discover the real motive behind the crimes.

The Adventure of the Three Students

Holmes must discover which of three students stole the galley proofs of the Ancient Greek exam from Hilton Soames.

The Adventure of the Golden Pince-Nez

Holmes investigates when a murdered secretary’s last words were ‘the professor – it was she’. Clear-cut evidence save for the fact that the professor he worked for is a man.

The Adventure of the Missing Three-Quarter

Cyril Overton seeks Holmes’ help over the disappearance of Godfrey Staunton. Staunton is the key player on Overton’s rugby team and the team will never win the vital match against Oxford the following day without him.

The Adventure of the Abbey Grange

Sir Eustace Brackenstall has been murdered, apparently by a gang of burglars, but Holmes believes that the key to the murder lies in a secret from Brackenstall’s wife’s past.

The Adventure of the Second Stain

An important document has been stolen from the Secretary of State for European Affairs. If the contents of the document are divulged there could be dire consequences, even war, for the whole of Europe. Holmes is soon on the trail of a host of known spies.

The Return of Sherlock Holmes is followed by the third of Conan Doyle’s Sherlock Holmes novels, The Hound of the Baskervilles.

The copyright of the article The Return of Sherlock Holmes in Detective Fiction is owned by Erin Britton. Permission to republish The Return of Sherlock Holmes in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.