Sherlock Holmes' Last Case

3/5 ( ratings)

In 1914 Conan-Doyle penned his final Sherlock Holmes tale, which featured him uncovering a German spy ring scheming to sabotage the British war effort. Since then all sorts of Holmes tales have appeared in novels, movies, TV recreations, etc. But in none of them, save for Conan-Doyle’s final effort, do we find either Holmes or Watson aging normally.
This is sad. Holmes and Watson do not resonate well when translated into a different milieu. There always seems to be something a trifle forced in the doing.
This tale is intended as a tribute to the memory of a great contributor to the art of detective story fiction.
Here we find the pair living in Dorking after having served in Naval Intelligence and a field hospital in France during the war.
A series of brutal murders of young girls taking place in and around Brighton in the early 1920’s cause the two of them to emerge from their retirement and take to the field one last time.
The conditions and ambience of the British people in the ten years immediately following the war are carefully researched. The names of existing streets, restaurants and buildings present at the time are used throughout in order to convey an actual feeling for the environment.
Both Holmes and Watson are treated as aged gentlemen in their 70’s. Neither of them is in great physical condition. They tire more easily, they dread the loss of their mental acuity and are plagued with the fear of winding up as shambling wrecks in some sanitarium. Above all they are bored.
After all, when one has eaten the same Stilton cheese virtually every day for more than half a century it seems to be asking too much to have either of them exclaim, “This is excellent Stilton today!”
The result is an unusual, but I hope enjoyable Sherlock Holmes book which even Conan-Doyle would approve of.
To this I must add my sincere gratitude to the good people of the Sussex County Library in Horsham for the unstinting assistance they provided in supplying me with a multitude of detailed maps dating to the 1920’s as well as their patient, and I suspect often amused, correction of my unconscious Americanisms appearing in my first drafts.