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.

Top Lessons

• No ghosts need apply

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

• Patient suffering

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

• The wish to stay young

  The Creeping Man warns against unnatural means to defeat aging.

Verified Quotes

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.

• The Veiled Lodger

  Holmes dissuades a disfigured woman from suicide.