2006 Audie® Award Winner - Audio Drama

Blackstone Audiobooks is pleased to present the first audio recordings ever of the only two Holmes plays written by his creator, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. These new, specially commissioned productions of the Hollywood Theater of the Ear star Audie Award-winning readers Martin Jarvis as Sherlock Holmes and Kristoffer Tabori as Dr. Watson.

In The Napoleon of Crime, Professor Moriarity plots with would-be blackmailers to have Holmes killed. And the normally love-proof Holmes falls for an exceptional woman. The play was co-authored by the American matinee idol William Gillette, who played the title sleuth. A smash hit from the beginning, the play remained in Gillette’s repertoire until he retired more than thirty years after its premiere.

What is the secret of the shocking death of poor Enid’s sister? What did she mean by her dying words, "the speckled band”? What danger does Enid face from the brutal Dr. Rylott? Only Holmes can scope out the answer and save the helpless girl from certain death. Sir Arthur adapted The Speckled Band (1910) from his own short story of that name. A stage success on three continents, the play hasn’t received a professional revival for eighty-four years.

When Holmes turned fifty, he retired and became a beekeeper, creating a crisis for his friend Watson, whose income derived from the Holmes stories he contributes to the Strand magazine. Further, the Doctor owes money to mobsters who want either their cash or his blood. The surprising upshot is, as the headlines proclaim, a Ghastly Double Murder in Famed Detective’s Flat, a one-act comedy by producer-director Yuri Rasovsky, here receiving its audiobook premiere.

A unique, must-have audio for all Sherlockians.