Sherlock Holmes - A Question of Time

By Orlando Pearson

Giallo - novelette (26 pagine) - A thought-provoking mixture of detection and morality

It is May 1940. The British army has been routed and is awaiting its evacuation from the beaches of Dunkirk.

Winston Churchill asks Holmes to stand by to provide advice on what steps to take in the face of the anticipated aerial onslaught of the Luftwaffe on British airfields.

As German attacks mount, Holmes offers unpalatable advice which Churchill accepts for want of an alternative. As German attacks switch from the airfields to production facilities, Holmes provides additional detective advice on a most unexpected matter. But it is the use to which Churchill puts the advice, which creates a rift between the two men, which remains unresolved at the end of the story.

Orlando Pearson, creator of the well-known Redacted Sherlock Holmes series, commutes into London during the day and communes with the spirits of Baker Street by night.

An international businessman, his interests include classical music, history, literature, current affairs, sport and economics. All these themes find their way into his stories which are being translated into German and Italian.

Mr Pearson is married with two children and lives near Wisteria Lodge.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Delos Digital
• Release date: Feb 15, 2022
• ISBN: 9788825419252

Book preview

1

In the summer of 1937, after the death of my second wife, I moved to the South Downs to share once more quarters with my friend, Sherlock Holmes.

I confess that when I made this move, I assumed that it was on the South Downs that I would end my days. The outbreak of war in September 1939 put an end to this pipe dream as it resulted in the requisitioning of Holmes’s beekeeper’s cottage the following year. With accommodation, like everything else, in short supply, I feared finding alternative lodgings would be difficult, and it was a relief when Holmes told me he had been able to secure a place for us to live in the village of Fenny Stratford in Buckinghamshire. It was only in the matter I have related in the story The Führer and his Deputies that the reason for this location and the ease with which Holmes was able to find accommodation there became clear to me.

The contrast between the scenery of the chalk cliffs of Sussex and the flatlands of the home counties is a striking one. But the only changes in our routines after our move were brought about by the exigencies of the war. A small garden enabled Holmes to continue his chosen retirement activity of beekeeping, while our personal requirements were simple: plain food, tobacco, and newspapers. Even these needs had become hard to fulfil by May 1940 when this story opens, for the German U-boat campaign in the Atlantic had already led to the sinking of thousands of tonnes of shipping and difficulties in obtaining basic goods.

The Germans had launched their attack on France and the Low Countries on 11 May.

At the end of the month, I had gone to the village tobacconist to see whether he had any cigarettes for we had lately been unable to replenish our stocks. My search was in vain, but I took the opportunity to pick up the double sheet of thin, grey paper which was what passed as a newspaper at this time. The headline, BRITISH EXPEDITIONARY FORCE RETREATING TO DUNKIRK, echoed what I had heard that morning on the wireless, and it was in sombre mood that I returned to our cottage.

2

When I arrived, it was to find a black motor vehicle – a rarity at this time of personal astringency – parked outside our house with a uniformed chauffeur sitting in the driver’s seat.

No one attempted to bar my way into the house and, when I entered, it was to hear a growly voice I was familiar with from recent wireless broadcasts, but was not anticipating that I would hear in person.

"The British Expeditionary Force has not lost its cohesion and is