Showing results by narrator "David Ian Davies" in All Categories

Mr. Hall Pycroft has no sooner found a new position to replace the job he lost than he is approached by an unknown gentleman who offers him even better and higher paying employment. Pycroft accepts the offer and is told to contact the gentleman’s brother. After traveling to what have been called the temporary offices of the Franco-Midland Hardware Company, Limited, what he sees and hears during his interview raises alarms in his mind. Uncertain of what the strange events all mean, he has come to Sherlock Holmes.

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. A family retainer has been murdered, but the points of evidence seem completey awry.

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 fifth story from Doyle's Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes ( The Strand magazine, 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 of events upon the high seas, of plotting and murder, of betrayal - and the man's long-hidden secrets of another life.

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.

Holmes must recover a stolen document, prevent a diplomatic crisis between England and Italy, and save the career of a young and rising diplomat.

In desperation, Holmes is asked to rescue the kidnapped only son of the Duke of Holdernesse. Motivated by greed and jealousy, the criminal in this classic Sherlock Holmes mystery causes a far greater tragedy than mere kidnapping.

The destruction of duplicate plaster casts of the famous head of Napoleon by the French sculptor, Devine, becomes more than a mere curiosity to Sherlock Holmes when a murder is committed during the commission of one of the crimes. The case begins at the shop of Morse Hudson, who has a place for the sale of pictures and statues in the Kennington Road. The burglaries and destructions escalate until, with the brutal slaying, it becomes obvious that the value of the plaster effigies extends beyond a mere hatred of Napoleon.

Hilton Cubitt, from Derbyshire, consults Holmes about a series of dancing men picture-messages his wife is receiving. On their wedding-day, she had made Cubitt promise he would ask her nothing about her past, but she now seems to be terrified. Holmes has to decipher the code of the matchstick men and get to the bottom of the dreadful murder that lies behind it.

Dr. Watson's account of the strange death of Captain Peter Carey begins one morning with Holmes returning to Baker Street with a "huge barbed-headed spear tucked like an umbrella under his arm." The instrument, the facts unfold, duplicates the weapon which has been driven so violently through the victim's body that it has been discovered pinned to the wall like an insect.

Sherlock Holmes first regards the experiences related by newly arrived visitor Violet Smith with a degree of impatience and disinterest. This solitary cyclist, however, is being shadowed by a mysterious man on a bicycle as she travels to and from her new employer's home as a music teacher. As Holmes and Watson investigate, a dark, dangerous picture begins to emerge that threatens the young lady's safety and ultimately her freedom.

This lovely narrative tells the story of the soul of a quiet man who never hurt another human being, never complained even when he was hurt or humiliated by others, as it enters the Heavenly Court of Judgment. He has lived his entire life unnoticed, without heirs of possessions, and has been buried with no one to mourn his loss. But Heaven sees him much differently.

Holmes' search for Neville St. Clair has lead him to the opium dens of Upper Swandam Lane, where the 'disappearance' of many souls in this vile alley is a sobering fact of life. Not simply those whose lives are consumed and cast into perdition by the drug, but sudden, violent exits from the mortal plane at the hands of others. St. Clair's distraught wife has seen him here in one of the dens, but he has vanished just as suddenly. Police have found his clothes and bloodstains upon an open windowsill.

A precious stone with a history of murders and violence behind it is discovered in the crop of a Christmas goose after being reported stolen yet again, from its owner's jewel case, and the guilt placed upon a plumber who protests his innocence.

The Red-Headed League - Holmes and Doyle pull out all the stops for this classic Conan Doyle story. Of all the many excellent tales in life of Sherlock Holmes this must rate amongst the most perplexing of them all. Why would a pawnbroker have to copy out in long-hand the complete Encyclopedia Britannica, word for word, and what bearing can the knees of a man's trousers have on the case?

In the story that started it all, Holmes and Watson meet for the first time and Inspector Gregson of Scotland Yard asks the world's first consulting detective to assist in the investigation of a bizarre poisoning case.

A Case of Identity - Miss Mary Sutherland, angry and beside herself with feelings of loss, asks Sherlock Holmes to solve the sudden, mysterious disappearance of a shy and attentive man she has grown to love upon the very day they were to be married.

James M. Dodd comes to see Holmes about a missing friend, Godfrey Emsworth. Dodd and Emsworth served together in the Imperial Yeomanry in South Africa during the Second Boer War, which has only just ended. Emsworth was wounded and Dodd has not seen him since the report of his injury. He also has not received any letters from him in six months. Since Emsworth has always been such a good friend, Dodd is inclined to assume that something must be amiss.

The Adventure of the Creeping Man: The strange behavior of a family dog towards its master brings Holmes into a case involving the increasingly odd and disturbing behavior of the man himself, a respected professor.

The Problem of Thor Bridge: A love triangle culminates in the shooting death of the wife and murder charges against the household's beautiful governess. The arrogant, combative husband seeks the services of Sherlock Holmes to clear the young lady in question. The case appears cut and dried, 'til a stroke of insight leads the detective to the solution to the perplexing evidence.