The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes: Death at the Theatre

Author: (English) Andrew
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2004-10-01
Features: Excerpt from the book: Sigmund Neuberg, the great La Fayette familiar to the public, has unfortunately passed away nearly a decade. He was killed in a fire at the Edinburgh Imperial Theatre, which nearly destroyed the entire backstage of the theater. This was no ordinary fire; there were many strange aspects to it, and my friend Sherlock Holmes investigated it. By the way, I finally obtained Holmes's permission to publish the details of the case; it may enlighten you and may also fascinate you. Due to legal restrictions, many facts of this case had not been made public before. However, with the recent death of another party involved in the case, some details have now become possible to share with everyone. John H. Watson wrote this in northern London in May 1920.
The incident I am about to describe occurred when I and my friend, Mr. Sherlock Holmes, were on a fishing holiday in Scotland, which surprised me greatly. The time was early April 1911, and the location was a village near Tayック—Perth. I was surprised because, as far as I knew, Holmes had no interest in any form of rural recreation, especially not in killing small creatures. However, he had been living in isolation in Sussex, tending to his bees for too long, so as usual, he eagerly awaited his only friend to accompany him.
"Dear Watson, I know you are planning to set off for Perthshire to catch those unlucky trout," we were in my study at home in northern London, and the table was clearly laid out with fishing gear—artificial flies, fishing lines, and reel. Therefore, I was not surprised by Holmes's deduction.
I said, "Holmes, for a detective of your caliber, this is obvious. However, I doubt you can guess which location I have chosen."
He replied, "Come now, Watson, there is a row of fishing books on your bookshelf. As far as I know, you don’t allow servants into this room, so each book has naturally accumulated a layer of dust, but one book has recently been moved, having been read and then put back. The title of that book is The Trout Fishing Season in Perthshire. I also noticed that you plan to end your trip before the last week of April."
At this point, his attention had caught mine. I asked, "How did you know?"
He smiled and said, "There is a selection of artificial flies on the table for your short trip." I agreed, and he continued, "There are no artificial mayflies. Mayflies, those short-lived insects with three small tails, are irresistible to large, fat trout. However, if there are no real mayflies in groups, then the artificial ones are useless. Real mayflies only appear in May, and it is now the last week of March, so you don’t need me to say more!"