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:
The Adventure of the Cardboard Box: A woman's life is thrown into disarray, the object of sudden publicity, when she receives a tobacco box filled with coarse salt and . . . two unmatched human ears. Why has she, of all people, become the recipient of so ghastly a package?
The Adventure of the Red Circle: Doyle's inclination to journey to the United States for his material in Sherlock Holmes stories again comes to the fore here. Traveling between the two countries, his characters bring their pasts with them, and find they cannot escape their enemies or their demons by traveling to another land.
The Adventure of the Bruce-Partington Plans: Mycroft Holmes calls brother Sherlock in to investigate the theft of three key documents that expose the vital workings of the Bruce-Partington project -- a turn-of-the-century submarine which promises to make warfare against the British navy vitually impossible. The apparent thief's body, that of a young government worker responsible for the documents' security, is found under strange circumstances along the tracks of the London railway. But the Sherlock Holmes' search for clues begins to lead toward different conclusions than those of Inspector Lestrade.
The Adventure of the Dying Detective: This entry in Watson's journal takes place some time after Dr. Watson's marriage, and residence away from Baker Street. Watson arrives back at 221-B and is stunned to find his longtime friend Sherlock Holmes languishing in the throes of a terrible disease. Though Watson's first instinct is to help his sinking and delirium-ravaged colleague, Holmes' reactions frustrate and mystify the good doctor. The story winds toward one of Doyle's Holmesian twists that leaves listeners fulfilled and smiling.
The Disappearance of Lady Frances Carfax: "One of the most dangerous classes in the world," says Holmes, "is the drifting and friendless woman.” And Lady Frances Carfax is such, and who has fallen into the clutches of a phony preacher.
The Adventure of the Devil's Foot: Watson lays out the truth behind the infamous Cornish Horror case, which begins in 1897 as Holmes is recuperating from a grueling onslaught of difficult cases. A gathering at the villa at Tredannick Wartha is discovered in disarray, some dead, the others driven mad, seemingly at the sight of something so horrible their minds could not withstand what their eyes beheld.
