Sherlock Holmes and Ceylon

 Sherlock 6 by Stephen Gaspar is the new Sherlock Holmes book containing six Sherlock Holmes short stories in the canonical tradition takn from the original stories themselves.   

In a Scandal in Bohemia, Watson Ewrites:

From time to time I heard some vague account of his doings: … of his clearing up of the singular tragedy of the Atkinson brothers at Trincomalee … .

The backstory here, of course, takes place in Ceylon, now Sri Lanka.

In The Sign of Four Watson writes: He spoke on a quick succession of subjects... on the Buddhism of Ceylon… .

Conan Doyle himself wrote: ...the tea-fields of Ceylon are as true a monument to courage as is the lion at Waterloo.

Excerpt from The Atkinson Brothers of Trincomalee.

  It was mid-November in 1886 and my wife and I had just

finished breakfast when we heard the sharp clang of

the bell.

The maid shortly brought me a telegram from my

friend Sherlock Holmes, and it ran in this way:

‘Note well the article in today’s paper regarding the

murder of Harold Atkinson. This case may interest you.’  

    I handed the telegram to my wife and picked up the

morning paper. I found the article with the lurid

headline, London Businessman Found Murdered.

The story ran thus:

    ‘Late last evening local businessman Harold

Atkinson, of Atkinson Bros. on Wigmore Street,

was found fatally stabbed to death in his home

in Grosvenor Square. The perpetrator of the crime,

a brown-skinned man with no identification was

also found dead at the scene, fatally wounded by

the gun still clutched in the hand of Harold Atkinson.

Police suspect the unidentified foreigner had broken into

Atkinson’s home to rob him. Atkinson must have come

upon the man who stabbed the owner of the home before

he himself was shot by Atkinson.

Readers will remember that Atkinson’s partner and brother,

Walter Atkinson, was found dead of apparent suicide

just two weeks prior.’ 

    I finished reading the article, not at all surprised that

this tragedy would be of interest to Sherlock Holmes,

but wondered how, if at all, he was connected to

these deaths.