In tribute to Arthur Conan Doyle, here at last are the complete Canon stories in order of their creation, from "A Study In Scarlet" to "The Retired Colourman." I hope that you enjoy listening as much as I did narrating them.
-David Ian Davies
This collection includes:
Silver Blaze: Dr. Watson's introduction to the Holmes case among the Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes called The Adventure of Silver Blaze (Strand magazine December 1892) is succinct and impossible to improve upon: "There was but one problem before the public which could challenge his powers of analysis, and that was the singular disappearance of the favourite for the Wessex Cup, and the tragic murder of its trainer."
The Yellow Face: Whose is the face at the upstairs window, "livid, deadly yellow, and with something set and rigid about it, which was shockingly unnatural?"
The Stockbroker's Clerk: Mr. Hall Pycroft has found a new job, but all is not quite as it should be.
The "Gloria Scott": The fifth story from Doyle's "Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes" (The Strand/1893) reveals the roots of the detective's foray into criminology and his very first case as a young college student, when the death of his school chum's father unearths a terrible, tragic series events upon the high seas, of plotting and murder, of betrayal -- and the man's long-hidden secrets of another life.
The Musgrave Ritual: Digging into his tin box of papers one day, Holmes recounts for Dr. Watson one of his earliest cases. In it, Holmes must decipher the ancient Musgrave Ritual to solve the mysterious disappearance of schoolmate Reginald Musgrave's butler and maid, after Musgrave terminates the butler for secretly reading the text of the ceremony.
The Reigate Puzzle: A holiday in the country after Holmes suffers an attack of nervous exhaustion develops into a crime investigation, and then one of the detective's cases, when a family retainer is murdered but the points of evidence seem completey awry.
The Crooked Man: Watson joins Holmes late one night as the detective takes on the case of an army officer who has died an apparently violent death. He is found in a pool of blood, his head savagely struck during an argument with his wife, who is now incapacitated by the traumatic event. Yet there is evidence that suggests the presence of a third party in the locked room -- and even a strange, curtain-climbing animal of unknown origins.
