The Casebook of Sherlock Holmes Volume 2 » (Unabridged, 4 CDs, 5 hrs. 30 minutes)

Sir Arthur Conan Doyle was both a doctor and a believer in spirits, which may partly explain why his Sherlock Holmes is one of literature's most beloved detectives: Holmes always approaches his cases with the gentility and logic of a scientist, but the stories are suffused with an aura of the supernatural. Narrated by devoted assistant Dr. John H. Watson, Holmes's adventures were so addictive that fans protested the master deducer's "death" in 1893 and Doyle had to resurrect him.

In the last six stories written by Conan Doyle featuring Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson, the duo face some of their most challenging cases. In The Adventure of the Illustrious Client, Holmes puts his own life in danger as he tries to cut short a young girl's infatuation with the notorious wife-murderer Baron Gruner. Why is Mrs. Maberley offered a handsome price for the Three Gables, provided she leaves at once and takes nothing with her? Even in his retirement, Holmes's skills are called upon, as he follows a trail of death on the Sussex coast in The Adventure of the Lion's Mane.

Publishers Weekly

After 10 years, 57 stories, four novels and 60 CDs, David Timson's monumental task of recording every word of Conan Doyle's Sherlock Holmes stories for Naxos concludes. Timson even contributes a Holmes-Watson adventure of his own, "The Wonderful Toy." Timson reads energetically, throwing himself into the stories' spirit of elegant deduction and headlong adventure. The dulcet tones of Timson's Watson are frequently interrupted by a panoply of other voices: Cockney ladies of the night, harried businessmen and, of course, the clipped public school staccato of Holmes himself. (Apr.)

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