The Adventure of the Dying Detective
A master of disguise plays his deadliest hand: faking a fatal illness to trap a murderer.
"The Adventure of the Dying Detective" is one of the 56 Sherlock Holmes short stories by Arthur Conan Doyle, first published in Collier's on 22 November 1913 and in The Strand Magazine in December 1913, and collected in His Last Bow. Watson is called to Baker Street to find Holmes apparently dying of a rare tropical disease, Tapanuli fever.
Quick Facts
- Author
- Arthur Conan Doyle
- Series
- His Last Bow
- Published
- 1913
- Preceded by
- The Disappearance of Lady Frances Carfax
Lore & Background
Mrs. Hudson says Holmes has neither eaten nor drunk for three days. He forbids Watson to come near, calling the illness highly infectious, and wounds him by scorning his medical abilities. The illness is a ruse: Holmes starved himself and claimed infection so that Watson could not examine him and discover the truth, and he later makes clear that he has every respect for his friend's skill. The aim is a confession from Culverton Smith, whose nephew Victor Savage died of the same disease.
Reader's Guide
At six o'clock Holmes sends Watson to fetch Mr Culverton Smith of 13 Lower Burke Street, telling him to get back before Smith arrives. With Watson hidden behind a screen, Smith, believing himself alone with a dying man, speaks freely: he had posted Holmes a small ivory box containing a sharp spring infected with the illness that killed his nephew. Smith pockets the box and settles down to watch Holmes die. Holmes asks him to turn the gas up full, the signal for Inspector Morton to enter, and Smith is arrested for the murder of Victor Savage. Holmes was never infected; he always examines his post with care before opening it.
More in Cases & Adventures
Elsewhere in Sherlock Holmes
Spotted an error? Know more?
Reader corrections go straight into our review queue. Suggest an edit · How this site is sourced