Sherlock Holmes and the Napped Children

by Phillip Duke

Blonde and blue-eyed little girls between the ages of 9 and 10 are being napped (kidnapped) in London, and Chief Of Detectives at Scotland Yard Inspector Lestrade has been forced to ask Sherlock Holmes For help. The children just seem to disappear; one minute they are here, and the next they are gone. There are no ransome notes, and no one has seen or heard anything unusual.

When the child in nanny Rose's care was taken she saw nothing inusual; but when Holmes asks her to relate what she saw that was usual, she mentions a fat old lady, who as it turns out is key to the investigation.

Holmes and the police set a trap for the napper, and catch him, but he takes poison and dies before he can be questioned. Sherlock Holmes believes he has bungled the case; no way remains to locate the children. Evidently they are lost.

After spending most of the night thinking, Holmes comes up with a very unusual, new way to approach solving the case. At his suggestion he and Watson apply the new approach together, and it succeeds.

This is another of the "lost mystery" cases of Sherlock Holmes. Because Holmes felt he bungled it, the case was written up by Dr. Watson, but not published.

Now for the first time ever you can read The Case Of Sherlock Holmes And The Napped Children. Sherlock Holmes forbid its publication because genius such as his requires absolute perfection; it will settle for nothing less. Read the case, and decide for yourself; did Sherlock Holmes bungle it, or did he solve it in a way that was quite unusual, new, and exceptionally brilliant?

This is certainly one of Sherlock Holmes's most unusual, and most interesting cases.

34 pages, Kindle Edition

First published February 4, 2012