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18 pages

English

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Featuring an anonymous client and a trail of murderous crimes, delve into the thrilling depths of Victorian England in this short Sherlock Holmes story.

The city of London is shrouded in a thick fog, concealing dark secrets and deadly schemes, when a British officer arrives at Baker Street. When he begs Sherlock Holmes to help save his illustrious client, the detective can’t refuse. A sinister plot of love, deception, and murder begins to unravel as Holmes and Watson investigate the complex mystery. They face a series of challenges and obstacles, each more dangerous than the last, as they race against time.

First published in 1924, ‘The Adventure of the Illustrious Client’ was one of Arthur Conan Doyle’s last Sherlock Holmes stories. Fantasy and Horror Classics is proud to be republishing this story in a brand new edition featuring a specially commissioned introduction.

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Private Investigators

Detective

Mystery

Fiction

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Publié par	Read Books Ltd.
Date de parution	03 décembre 2014
Nombre de lectures	0
EAN13	9781447480051
Langue	English

Informations légales : prix de location à la page 0,0350€. Cette information est donnée uniquement à titre indicatif conformément à la législation en vigueur.

Extrait

T HE A DVENTURE OF THE I LLUSTRIOUS C LIENT
B Y
S IR A RTHUR C ONAN D OYLE
Copyright 2011 Read Books Ltd. This book is copyright and may not be reproduced or copied in any way without the express permission of the publisher in writing
British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
Contents
A Biography of Arthur Conan Doyle
The Adventure of the Illustrious Client
S IR A RTHUR C ONAN D OYLE
Arthur Conan Doyle was born in Edinburgh, Scotland, in 1859. It was between 1876 and 1881, while studying medicine at the University of Edinburgh, that he began writing short stories, and his first piece was published in Chambers s Edinburgh Journal before he was 20. In 1882, Conan Doyle opened an independent medical practice in Southsea, near Portsmouth. It was here, while waiting for patients, that he turned to writing fiction again, composing his first novel, The Narrative of John Smith .
In 1887, Conan Doyle s first significant work, A Study in Scarlet , appeared in Beeton s Christmas Annual . It featured the first appearance of detective Sherlock Holmes, the protagonist who was to eventually make Conan Doyle s reputation. A prolific writer, Conan Doyle continued to produce a range of fictional works over the following years. In 1893, feeling that the character of Sherlock Holmes was distracting him from his historical novels, he had Holmes apparendy plunge to his death in the short story The Final Problem . However, eight years later, following a public outcry from his readers, Conan Doyle resurrected the detective in what is now widely regarded as his magnum opus, The Hound of the Baskervilles .
Sherlock Holmes went on to feature in fifty-six short stories and four novels, cementing Conan Doyle s reputation as probably the most famous crime writer of all time. Aside from his fiction, Conan Doyle was also a passionate political campaigner - a pamphlet he published in 1902, defending the United Kingdom s much-criticised role in the Boer War, is seen as a major contributor to his receiving of a knighthood in that same year.
In his later years, following the death of his son in World War I, Conan Doyle became deeply interested in spiritualism and psychic phenomena, producing several works on the subjects and engaging in a very public friendship and falling out with the American magician Harry Houdini. He died of a heart attack while living in East Sussex in 1930, aged 71.
T HE A DVENTURE OF THE I LLUSTRIOUS C LIENT
It can t hurt now, was Mr. Sherlock Holmes s comment when, for the tenth time in as many years, I asked his leave to reveal the following narrative. So it was that at last I obtained permission to put on record what was, in some ways, the supreme moment of my friend s career.
Both Holmes and I had a weakness for the Turkish bath. It was over a smoke in the pleasant lassitude of the drying-room that I have found him less reticent and more human than anywhere else. On the upper floor of the Northumberland Avenue establishment there is an isolated corner where two couches lie side by side, and it was on these that we lay upon September 3, 1902, the day when my narrative begins. I had asked him whether anything was stirring, and for answer he had shot his long, thin, nervous arm out of the sheets which enveloped him and had drawn an envelope from the inside pocket of the coat which hung beside him.
Collier s Weekly Magazine : New York (8 November 1924) pp. 5-7, 30, 32, 34. With four illustrations by John Richard Flanagan. Reprinted: The Strand Magazine (February-March 1925) pp. 109-118 and 259-266. With five illustrations; four by Howard K. Elcock.
It may be some fussy, self-important fool; it may be a matter of life or death, said he as he handed me the note. I know no more than this message tells me.
It was from the Carlton Club and dated the evening before. This is what I read:
Sir James Damery presents his compliments to Mr. Sherlock Holmes and will call upon him at 4.30 tomorrow. Sir James begs to say that the matter upon which he desires to consult Mr. Holmes is very delicate and also very important. He trusts, therefore, that Mr. Holmes will make every effort to grant this interview, and that he will confirm it over the telephone to the Carlton Club.
I need not say that I have confirmed it, Watson, said Holmes as I returned the paper. Do you know anything of this man Damery?
Only that this name is a household word in society.
Well, I can tell you a little more than that. He has rather a reputation for arranging delicate matters which are to be kept out of the papers. You may remember his negotiations with Sir George Lewis over the Hammerford Will case. He is a man of the world with a natural turn for diplomacy. I am bound, therefore, to hope that it is not a false scent and that he has some real need for our assistance.
Our?
Well, if you will be so good, Watson.
I shall be honoured.
Then you have the hour-4.30. Until then we can put the matter out of our heads.
I was living in my own rooms in Queen Anne Street at the time, but I was round at Baker Street before the time named. Sharp to the half-hour, Colonel Sir James Damery was announced. It is hardly necessary to describe him, for many will remember that large, bluff, honest personality, that broad, cleanshaven face, and, above all, that pleasant, mellow voice. Frankness shone from his gray Irish eyes, and good humour played round his mobile, smiling lips. His lucent top-hat, his dark frock-coat, indeed, every detail, from the pearl pin in the black satin cravat to the lavender spats over the varnished shoes, spoke of the meticulous care in dress for which he was famous. The big, masterful aristocrat dominated the little room.
Of course, I was prepared to find Dr. Watson, he remarked with a courteous bow. His collaboration may be very necessary, for we are dealing on this occasion, Mr.

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