It is the start of the First World War. Sherlock Holmes is coaxed out of a short lived retirement to track down an exotic dancer to retrieve a dangerous secret accidentally given to her by a young patent clerk before it falls into the hands of a hostile government. As much a detective story as a brief history of the causes, reasons and the long term futility of a long forgotten war.

Do Spirits Return? Sherlock Holmes, Mary Watson, and Harry Houdini say 'No' and prove it.

If the death of Doctor Watson had been of natural causes, his widow Mrs. Mary N. Watson would have grieved the loss of her husband for a time then moved on with her life.However on re-discovering his certificate of death she is again is faced with the troubling fact that the cause of his passing had been recorded as being of an indeterminate origin.With this Mary Watson again takes up the role of consulting detective and sets to find out 'who and why'.

Gravesend 1920. A famous mystery writer, while searching through the remains of a damaged church looking for story ideas, happens upon a document that was never meant to be found or read. Any knowledge of its contents could change the terms of the treaty that ended the First World War. There is also a change in the hand that writes and records the cases of Sherlock Holmes.

London 1895. A well known author, a theoretical invention made real, and the importance of a sometimes overlooked clue challenge Holmes and Watson to prevent the perfect crime.