I returned to the sitting room and observed all those trifle objects that signified the place was ours; Watson’s stack of medical journals, my piles of newspapers, the volumes over which we each pored when presented with a new supply of facts to consider, the worn patch on the hearth rug where I had paced, the mess of papers covering my desk, the ( Read more... )

My return from the Continent after a three-year absence was heralded with such fanfare and celebration that I was hounded for nearly a fortnight by press agents who were anxious to be the first to present the story in full. Returning to Baker Street, and to the side of my friend and colleague Dr. Watson, was adjustment enough without scads of ( Read more... )

At a laboratory in Montpellier, France, Sherlock Holmes was recording his latest observations on the coal-tar derivatives when the door opened and the page boy appeared.

“Pour vous, Monsieur Lefitte,” said the boy, tossing him a large envelope.

“Merci, Georges.”

Holmes placed his notebook aside and examined the envelope with his magnifying ( Read more... )

Of the scant good fortune I had been granted in those days, the fact that I had set up my practice next to a music teacher turned out to be one of my greatest comforts. In the busy first months of my practice, I’d taken little notice of my neighbors. It was not until I reduced my patient load after my return from the Continent that the harmonious ( Read more... )

Mary Morstan and I married just before Christmas of that year in a small ceremony at our local parish. I had moved out of Baker Street in the weeks preceding it, though the wounds from my clash with Holmes were so fresh that I hired a crew of men to pack and remove my things. He had not come to our wedding, and while it saddened me to realize that ( Read more... )

A blustery wind rustled through Baker Street, which looked as mute and cheerless as the grey late-autumn sky. Busy Londoners hurried about with coats drawn tightly about them, pinched faces cast towards the street, aware that these were the last days they could survive outside without the protection of muffs, scarves and woolen hats.

For nearly ( Read more... )