"The Adventure of the Dying Detective", in some editions simply titled "The Dying Detective", is one of the 56 Sherlock Holmes short stories that were written by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. It was originally published in Collier's in the United States on 22 November 1913, and The Strand Magazine in the United Kingdom in December 1913.

The setting date may be inferred from Watson's mention of it being "the second year of my marriage", the first having been 1889. Inspector Morton is referred to in a familiar fashion but this is his only appearance in canon. Canonical scholar Leslie S. Klinger wondered if Morton was the companion to Inspector Brown in The Sign of the Four.

Tropical disease specialist William A. Sodeman Jr., proposed that "Tapanuli fever" was melioidosis, a conclusion supported by physician Setu K. Vora. Vora raised the possibility that Conan Doyle read the first report of melioidosis published in 1912 before writing his short story in 1913.

Publication history

"The Adventure of the Dying Detective" was published in the US in Collier's on 22 November 1913, and in the UK in The Strand Magazine in December 1913. The story was published with three illustrations by Frederic Dorr Steele in Collier's, and with four illustrations by Walter Paget (Sidney Paget's brother) in the Strand. The story was included in the short story collection His Last Bow,

Adaptations

Film and television

  • A 1921 short film adaptation was released in the Stoll film series starring Eille Norwood as Holmes.
  • A 1951 TV episode of We Present Alan Wheatley as Mr Sherlock Holmes in... was adapted from the story, starring Alan Wheatley as Holmes, Raymond Francis as Dr. Watson and Bill Owen as Inspector Lestrade. The episode is now lost. This version is faithful to the original short story but greatly expanded. It features much more detail on Smith's nephew, who is instead portrayed as Smith's cousin, and replaces the infected spring with a pair of tacks. .
  • The story was adapted as a 1999 episode of the animated television series Sherlock Holmes in the 22nd Century titled "The Adventure of the Deranged Detective".
  • A 2012 TV episode of Elementary starring Jonny Lee Miller as Holmes, which is the ninth episode of the first season, mirrors many elements from the story, albeit with Holmes simply ill from a more conventional disease that thus limits his ability to conduct fieldwork.
  • A 2017 episode of Sherlock includes the character Culverton Smith, portrayed by Toby Jones. The title of the episode, "The Lying Detective", is a play on the title of the original story. Unlike the original tale, where Culverton Smith is only suggested to have committed one murder, "The Lying Detective" presents him as a wealthy philanthropist who has arranged for a particular room in a hospital he sponsors to have a secret passage that he can use to sneak in and kill anyone being treated in it. Alerted to Smith's true nature by his apparently psychotic daughter as part of an unknown agenda, Sherlock uses this as an opportunity to create a dangerous situation that John Watson can save him from to fulfill Mary Watson's last request to save John from his grief after her death, deliberately falling off the wagon and reverting to an old drug habit so that he can be regarded as simply delusional, attacking Culverton and accusing him of being a serial killer so that he will be sent to Smith's hospital for treatment. This gives Sherlock a chance to hear Culverton's confession via a recording device hidden in John's old cane, which he had predicted John would leave with him after he was sent to hospital. Although the original confession is ruled inadmissible as Sherlock basically acquired it through entrapment, Culverton subsequently willingly confesses his crimes to Lestrade, gleefully musing that he will be even more famous now.

Radio and audio dramas

  • "The Dying Detective" was adapted by Edith Meiser as an episode of the American radio series The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes. The episode, which aired in 1931, featured Richard Gordon as Sherlock Holmes and Leigh Lovell as Dr. Watson. Other productions of the story aired in 1935, with Louis Hector as Holmes and Lovell as Watson, and 1936, with Gordon as Holmes and Harry West as Watson.
  • An episode titled "The Riddle of the Dying Detective" aired in 1939 in the American radio series The New Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, with Basil Rathbone as Holmes and Nigel Bruce as Watson. Another episode titled "The Adventure of the Dying Detective" aired in 1943. The story was also adapted into a 1947 radio episode of the series, with Tom Conway as Holmes and Bruce as Watson. This version features Inspector Lestrade instead of Inspector Morton.
  • A 1954 radio adaptation with John Gielgud as Holmes and Ralph Richardson as Watson aired on the BBC Light Programme. Hugh Manning played Inspector Morton. Along with other Sherlock Holmes radio adaptations with Gielgud and Richardson, the production aired on NBC radio in 1955.
  • The story was adapted for BBC radio in 1967 by Michael Hardwick, as part of the 1952–1969 radio series starring Carleton Hobbs as Holmes and Norman Shelley as Watson.
  • A 1994 BBC Radio 4 adaptation dramatised by Robert Forrest aired as part of the 1989–1998 radio series starring Clive Merrison as Holmes and Michael Williams as Watson. It featured Edward Petherbridge as Culverton Smith and Alex Jennings as Savage.
  • In 2010, the story was adapted as an episode of The Classic Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, a series on the American radio show Imagination Theatre, with John Patrick Lowrie as Holmes and Lawrence Albert as Watson.

Books

It was adapted into one of the books of the Hong Kong children's book series The Great Detective Sherlock Holmes, as "The Dying Detective" (瀕死的大偵探). It is Book #19 of the original Chinese version, and book #14 of the English version.

References

Notes

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