Sherlock Holmes and The Strange Death of Brigadier-General Delves
1898. Dr Watson meets with Colonel “Maiwand Mike” Fenlon, an old military comrade, to reminisce about Afghanistan. Fenlon has been invited by Brigadier-General Delves to come to Guernsey to discuss the Battle of Maiwand, about which he is writing a book. There are questions. Why did Delves rush into battle, for example, when reinforcements were on the way? Why did, at every step, he seem to command defeats?
A telegram arrives for Watson from Fenlon in Guernsey, urgently requesting his assistance. Delves is dead, and Fenlon is accused of murder. Delves died, after pub crawling with Fenlon, of alcohol poisoning topped up by the opiate mixture chlorodyne, a vial of which was found under Fenlon’s chair. Fenlon has written an account of it, placed in an envelope in a bank vault, only to be opened after his death. He refuses to say anything in his own defence.
The narrator is Holmes’s “biographer”, Dr Watson, but there’s a long section when we lose track of who’s narrating (presumably Fenlon). Like all Holmes cases, this one has something of the quirky about it. The story hooks the reader with a good pace, building suspense until the opening of Fenlon’s bank vault document reveals the backstory. I couldn’t quite understand why the document could only be read after Fenlon’s death.
A long ‘Miscellany’ section at the end goes into absolutely everything.
