The Speckled Band” is an altogether darker business – a tale of madness, violence and gothic suspense. Dr Grimesby Roylott (wonderful name!) is one of the classic villains, and the story has consistently ranked among the all-time favourites since it was first published in The Strand Magazine in 1891.

Holmes’s investigation in the 1890’s of the events at Shoscombe Old Place – the eccentric behaviour of Sir Robert Norberton and the sinister mystery of the haunted crypt – was triumphantly successful.

The case of ‘The Five Orange Pips’, from the late 1880s, was one of Sherlock Holmes’ rare failures: he identified the doom that stalked the Openshaw family, but could not prevent the murder of his client.

In Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s original stories, Dr Watson drops tantalising hints about other cases of the great detective. Here we attempt to reconstruct one of these unpublished exploits.

In Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s original stories, Dr Watson drops tantalising hints about other cases of the great detective.