Sherlock Holmes and The Adventure of The Cold-Served Revenge

Foreword

The publishing sensation that I caused with my manuscript describing the case of Golem’s shadow took a long time to die down. Indeed it was here that I detected the true reason for Holmes’s retirement at the end of 1903, and thus finally eased my conscience. For many years I had been compelled to lie or at least mask the truth.

My promise to my publisher Mr Doyle, who had refused to print my work, still applied. I therefore undertook to write about another, less controversial case, but one that would still sate the public’s hunger for the adventures of Sherlock Holmes, while at the same time offering something new and unexpected. I had no desire to return to the years that I had already minutely described in several previous books.

The events of the spring of 1911 still loomed. I was no longer contributing to The Strand and Holmes had retired from public life. At no time earlier had there been a reason to make the case public. Indeed, for a number of years, up to the end of the Great War, parts of the case had been kept classified. I trust, therefore, that the reader will forgive me that in the interests of several highly placed people related to the royal family I have changed several names.

I am aware of the shame of letting these days fall into oblivion. Although while living through them old memories returned to us, some of them were unkind. But there is one man above all who deserves to be remembered: he who put us on the chessboard of this case and almost gave us mate.