- Believed dead after his fatal encounter with Professor Moriarity three years earlier, Sherlock Holmes returns to England to foil a plot to murder him by a former Moriarity gang member.
- After Dr. Watson testifies at the inquest of the Honourable Ronald Adair, shot to death after returning home from his gambling club, he is followed back to his office by an eccentric bookseller who reveals himself to be Holmes in disguise. After the initial shock wears off, Holmes explains that he did not die in the fall that killed Professor Moriarity in their famous encounter at Reichenbach Falls in Switzerland three years earlier. Holmes has remained out of England to avoid Colonel Sebastian Moran, a Moriarity associate who witnessed Holmes' escape death and has vowed to kill Holmes in revenge. Holmes will try to foil Moran and solve the Adair murder.—Gabe Taverney (duke1029@aol.com
- It is three years since Sherlock Holmes appeared to meet his death at the Reichenbach Falls. Dr Watson is working as a police surgeon when Holmes appears, perfectly alive. After explaining how he survived, Holmes and Watson set out to capture the man out to kill Holmes, the only follower of Moriarty who knows that Holmes is still alive.—grantss
- It's now been three years since his good friend Sherlock Holmes died while fighting Professor Moriarty at the Reichenbach Falls and Dr. Watson has successfully established himself in private practice. He's also working occasionally as a police surgeon and is called into the strange case of the murder of Ronald Adair. The gentleman had returned home from his club the previous evening and was apparently shot in his rooms in his parents house. No one heard a shot and the young man's room was locked from the inside. After testifying at the inquest, Watson bumps into a crippled bookseller who later turns up at his surgery. The man reveals himself to be Sherlock Holmes, alive and well. He recounts exactly what happened at the Falls and what he has been up to for the last three years. He also tells Watson that one of Moriarty's associates, Colonel Sebastian Moran - whom he has dubbed the second most dangerous man in London - is out for revenge for the death of the Professor. There is also a link to the Adair case.—garykmcd
- This is the first Holmes story set after his supposed death at the Reichenbach Falls, as recounted in "The Final Problem".
Murder of Ronald Adair in Park Lane The story begins, with a murder-the Park Lane Mystery in 1894 (3 years after the supposed death of Sherlock Holmes), the seemingly motiveless killing of the Honourable Ronald Adair, son of the Earl of Maynooth, a colonial governor in Australia. The authorities, not to mention the man's family, are perplexed by the case; it seems that Adair had not an enemy in the world. He was in his sitting room, with a window open, working on accounts of some kind, as indicated by the papers and money found by police. Adair liked playing whist and regularly did so at several clubs, but never for great sums of money. It does, however, come out that he won as much as £420 in partnership with a Colonel Moran (Patrick Allen) Motive: The motive does not appear to be robbery as nothing has been stolen. Crime Scene: It seems odd that Ronald's door was locked from the inside. The only other way out was the open window, and there was a 20-foot (about 6 m) drop below it onto a flower bed, which now shows no sign of being disturbed. Weapon: Adair was killed with a soft-nosed revolver bullet to the head. No one in the area at the time heard a shot.
Return of Holmes The narrator, Doctor Watson (Edward Hardwicke) (now a widower), having retained an interest in crime from his previous association with Holmes, visits the crime scene. He sees a plainclothes detective there with police, and runs into an elderly deformed book collector, knocking several of his books to the ground. The encounter ends with the man snarling in anger and going away. However, that is not the last that Watson sees of him, for a short time later, the man comes to Watson's study to apologize for his earlier behavior. Once he manages to distract Watson's attention for a few seconds (making Watson turn to his bookshelf to see if there is enough room to fit some books), he transforms himself into Sherlock Holmes (Jeremy Brett), much to Watson's great astonishment when he turns back round.
Holmes's account of his supposed death Reichenbach Falls incident Holmes's explanation of how he got out of the bind at Reichenbach Falls. Contrary to what Watson believed, Holmes won against Professor Moriarty (Eric Porter), flinging him down the waterfall with the help of some martial arts techniques, and then he climbed up the cliff beside the path to make it appear as though he, too, had fallen to his death. This was a plan that Holmes had just conceived to defend against Moriarty's confederates. However, at least one of them knew that he was still alive and tried to kill him by dropping rocks down on the ledge where he had taken refuge. Hurriedly climbing back down the cliff - and falling the last short distance to the path - Holmes ran for his life.
Time spent travelling He spent the next few years travelling to various parts of the world. Holmes says that initially, he traveled to Florence. From there, Holmes traveled to Tibet and wandered for two years, even attaining entry to Lhasa and met the "head lama". Afterward, Holmes traveled incognito as a Norwegian explorer named Sigerson. Then, he went to Persia, with Holmes entering Mecca and then to a brief stopover with the Khalifa in Khartoum. Finally, before returning, Holmes spent time doing chemical research on coal tar derivatives in Montpellier, France. However, Holmes was finally brought back to London by news of this Adair murder.
Mycroft's involvement During all this time, the only people who knew that Holmes was alive were Moriarty's henchmen and Holmes's brother Mycroft. The only reason for this was that Sherlock needed some money to enable him to travel and to keep his rooms just as he had left them.
Capturing Colonel Moran Holmes tells Watson that they are going to do some dangerous work that evening, and after a roundabout trip through the city, Holmes and Watson enter an empty house, and make their way to a front room overlooking - to Watson's great surprise - Baker Street. Holmes's room can be seen across the street, and more surprisingly still, Holmes can be seen silhouetted against the blind. It is a lifelike waxwork bust.
Moran's appearance Holmes is expecting an attempt on his life that very night, aware as he is that Moriarty's men know that he is back in London. The police, unknown to Watson at this time, are nearby, having been told that they will be needed. As usual, Holmes has deduced everything correctly, but with one almost disastrous exception: he fails to anticipate that the would-be murderer might use the same empty house for his nefarious deed that he and Watson are now using as their vantage point. In he comes, with his specially designed air-gun, utterly unaware that his intended victim is right in the same room because it is dark.
Arrest Once the ruffian shoots his air gun, scoring a direct hit on Holmes's dummy across the street, Holmes and Watson are on him, and he is soon disarmed and restrained. Holmes summons the police by blowing a whistle. They are led by Inspector Lestrade (Colin Jeavons), who arrests the gunman. It is none other than Colonel Moran, Ronald Adair's whist partner, and the same man who threw rocks down on the ledge at Holmes at Reichenbach Falls. Holmes does not wish the police to press charges of attempted murder in connection with what Moran has just done. Instead, he tells Lestrade to charge him with actual murder, for Moran is the man who murdered Ronald Adair. The air-gun, it turns out, has been specially designed to shoot revolver bullets, and quick forensics check of the one that "killed" his dummy shows, as Holmes expected, that it matches the bullet used to kill Adair. Sebastian Moran is arrested. Moran's motive in killing Adair is a matter of speculation even for Holmes. Nonetheless, his theory is that Adair had caught Moran cheating at cards and threatened to expose his dishonorable behavior. Moran, thug that he is, therefore got rid of the one man who could rob him of his livelihood, for he earned a living playing cards crookedly, and could ill afford to be barred from all his clubs.
Change in Holmes' character Three years of travelling have not changed Holmes very much. For instance, he still does not hold Scotland Yard detectives in general, or Lestrade in particular, in very high esteem. Upon meeting Lestrade at the "takedown", Holmes offers him a backhanded compliment: "Three undetected murders in one year won't do, Lestrade. But you handled the Molesey Mystery with less than your usual - that's to say, you handled it fairly well."
Contribute to this page
Suggest an edit or add missing content
Top Gap
What is the broadcast (satellite or terrestrial TV) release date of The Empty House (1986) in Australia?
Answer