The Case-Book of Sherlock Holmes

Summary

The Case-Book of Sherlock Holmes is the last collection of Holmes stories, twelve tales published in magazines between 1921 and 1927 and gathered in book form by John Murray in 1927. In his preface Doyle takes a gentle farewell, hoping that Holmes and Watson may find a place in some fantastic limbo of fictional characters. The stories are more varied and often darker than earlier ones. 'The Illustrious Client' pits Holmes against Baron Gruner, a charming murderer about to marry a young heiress; the case ends when one of his former victims throws acid in his face. 'The Blanched Soldier' and 'The Lion's Mane' are narrated by Holmes himself, the second in retirement on the Sussex coast, where a teacher dies after a swim and the culprit proves to be a jellyfish. 'The Mazarin Stone' is told in the third person and recovers a stolen diamond. 'The Three Gables' and 'The Three Garridebs' are tales of fraud. 'The Sussex Vampire' appears to involve a Peruvian wife drinking her baby's blood; Holmes, insisting that 'no ghosts need apply', finds a jealous stepson and a wife who was saving the child from poison. 'Thor Bridge' is an ingenious puzzle in which a woman stages her suicide to look like murder by her rival. 'The Creeping Man' concerns a professor taking a monkey serum to restore his youth. 'The Veiled Lodger' is a sorrowful story of a disfigured circus performer whom Holmes persuades not to take her own life, telling her that patient suffering is itself a precious lesson to an impatient world. 'Shoscombe Old Place' and 'The Retired Colourman' close the series. All twelve stories were first published in 1927 or earlier, so the entire collection is in the public domain in the United States as of 2026; the library includes the complete text. Some stories remain under copyright in Britain and other countries where Doyle's works were protected until 2000 and where copyright is counted from the author's death.

Plot or Argument

• The Illustrious Client

  Holmes tries to save a young heiress from marrying Baron Gruner, a cultured murderer.

• The Blanched Soldier and The Mazarin Stone

  A soldier's friend vanishes from a country house; a stolen crown diamond is recovered through a decoy.

• The Sussex Vampire and Thor Bridge

  A supposed vampire proves to be a loving mother; a death on a bridge is revealed as a staged suicide.

• The Creeping Man and The Lion's Mane

  A professor's youth serum changes his behaviour; a jellyfish explains a death on the Sussex coast.

• The Veiled Lodger to The Retired Colourman

  A disfigured woman tells her story; a racehorse secret and a miser's crime end the series.

Characters

• Sherlock Holmes, detective

  Older, sometimes narrating his own cases.

• Dr. John H. Watson, narrator

  Still Holmes's companion, though often absent from the later stories.

• Baron Adelbert Gruner, villain

  Charming collector and murderer in The Illustrious Client.

• Kitty Winter, avenger

  One of Gruner's victims, who takes her own revenge.

• Eugenia Ronder, veiled lodger

  Disfigured former circus performer who confides in Holmes.

Lessons

• No ghosts need apply

  Holmes refuses supernatural explanations and looks for natural causes. Students can practise reasoning carefully before jumping to strange conclusions.

  • What evidence leads Holmes away from the vampire theory?
  • How does a Christian view of creation support careful inquiry?

• Patient suffering

  Holmes urges a despairing woman not to take her own life, saying patient suffering teaches an impatient world.

  • Why does Holmes call her life precious?
  • How does this echo Christian teaching on suffering?

• The wish to stay young

  The Creeping Man warns against unnatural means to defeat aging.

  • Why does Professor Presbury take the serum?
  • What does the story suggest about accepting our limits?

Context

The stories were written in Doyle's last decade, when he was devoting most of his energy to spiritualism. They appeared in The Strand and American magazines from October 1921 to April 1927.

Composition

Collected and published by John Murray in June 1927. Under US law, a work published in 1927 entered the public domain on 1 January 2023; every story here was published by 1927, so the full collection is public domain in the US.

Reception

Critics have often judged the Case-Book uneven, but several stories, including Thor Bridge and The Illustrious Client, are widely admired.

Comparisons

• His Last Bow

  The previous collection, ending with Holmes's wartime service.

• The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes

  Earlier stories for comparing Doyle's style across thirty years.

• The Hound of the Baskervilles

  Another case in which Holmes rejects a supernatural explanation.

Quotes

For Students

A reading companion for classical Christian high school students. See the student guide.

Reading Guide

Watch for

• How Holmes rejects supernatural explanations.
• Which stories Holmes narrates himself, and how his voice differs from Watson's.
• The moral argument Holmes makes in The Veiled Lodger.
• The mechanism of the Thor Bridge solution.

Key terms and names

Curare

South American arrow poison central to The Sussex Vampire.

Lion's mane

A jellyfish whose sting explains a death on the beach.

Serum

A preparation from animal blood injected as medicine.

Public domain

Status of a work no longer protected by copyright; in the US, works published in 1927 became free in 2023.

Seminar Questions

1. Comprehension What is the real explanation of the Sussex Vampire case?
2. Comprehension How does Holmes solve Thor Bridge?
3. Interpretation Why might Doyle let Holmes narrate some stories?
4. Interpretation What does The Creeping Man suggest about the desire for youth?
5. Interpretation How is The Veiled Lodger different from a typical detective story?
6. Big Question What gives meaning to suffering that cannot be removed?

Faith Connections

• Romans 5:3-4 (Scripture)

  Tribulation worketh patience; and patience, experience; and experience, hope. Holmes's words to Eugenia Ronder echo this.

• Psalm 90:12 (Scripture)

  So teach us to number our days; The Creeping Man warns against refusing the limits of age.

Logic and Rhetoric

Central argument: Reason must reject superstition, and a good life accepts its limits and suffering rather than seizing unnatural escapes.

Rhetorical device: first-person shift. Holmes himself narrates The Blanched Soldier and The Lion's Mane, admitting that telling a story well is harder than he thought.

Debate: Resolved: that the late Holmes stories are as good as the early ones.

Memory Work

The example of patient suffering is in itself the most precious of all lessons to an impatient world.

Writing Prompts

Essay: Discuss how the Case-Book treats aging and suffering, using The Creeping Man and The Veiled Lodger.

Comparison with His Last Bow: Compare the moods of the last two Holmes collections.

Medical Lens

The Creeping Man depicts a serum taken to restore youth, echoing 1920s gland-transplant fads; The Veiled Lodger deals with disfigurement and suicidal despair; The Sussex Vampire involves curare poisoning.

• The Creeping Man

  A professor injects an animal-derived serum to regain vigour.

  Aging Senescence Pharmacology Poisons
• The Veiled Lodger

  Holmes dissuades a disfigured woman from suicide.

  Suicide Disability Deformity

Creative Prompts

• Fiction

  Write the letter Eugenia Ronder sends Holmes months after their meeting.

• Essay

  How do the late Holmes stories differ from the early ones in tone and theme?

• Classroom

  Reconstruct the Thor Bridge solution with string and a weight, as Holmes did.

Further Reading

• His Last Bow, Arthur Conan Doyle

  The previous collection.