Before You Begin

Before you begin.

An absurd advertisement conceals a meticulously engineered crime. Jabez Wilson's extraordinary red hair earns him an improbable office job, but Sherlock Holmes is less interested in the League's rules than in the assistant who accepts half wages and spends long hours in the cellar.

The case crosses Baker Street, Fleet Street, Saxe-Coburg Square and the City, turning an advertisement, a camera, worn trouser knees, a hollow pavement and a Saturday closing into one chain of evidence.

Arthur Conan Doyle (1859–1930) trained and practised as a physician before literary success made Sherlock Holmes internationally famous. He also wrote historical fiction, science fiction and journalism, campaigned for legal reform, and was knighted in 1902.

Progression plates unlock as you read and never reveal events beyond the passage you have reached.