Table Of Content

CONTENTS Cover Also Available from Titan Books Title Page Copyright Dedication Foreword Part I Chapter One: The Evening Caller Chapter Two: The Disappeared Daughter Chapter Three: A Practitioner of the Epistolary Art Chapter Four: A Kind of Purdah Chapter Five: Woolfson’s Stiletto Chapter Six: A Man Too Charming by Half Chapter Seven: Waterton Parva Chapter Eight: Charfrome Old Place by Night Chapter Nine: The Belly of the Whale Chapter Ten: The Local Eccentrics Chapter Eleven: The Elysians in their Natural Habitat Chapter Twelve: Miss Shirley Holbrook Chapter Thirteen: An Encounter in the Woods Part II Chapter Fourteen: The Huge Onus of Parenthood Chapter Fifteen: Portraits of Hell Chapter Sixteen: Sherlock Holmes’s Reply Chapter Seventeen: A Loathsome Lothario Chapter Eighteen: A Fascination for Dark Things Chapter Nineteen: A Suicidal Solicitor Chapter Twenty: Depths of Deception Chapter Twenty-One: Certainties, Certainties, Certainties Chapter Twenty-Two: Travel Travails Chapter Twenty-Three: Fortune Favours the Bold Chapter Twenty-Four: Antechamber Chapter Twenty-Five: The Tripod and the Laurel Smoke Chapter Twenty-Six: Black Drop Chapter Twenty-Seven: Sophia’s First Misfortune Chapter Twenty-Eight: Sophia’s Second Misfortune Chapter Twenty-Nine: Evil, or Blind Necessity Part III Chapter Thirty: A Penchant for all Things Daedalian Chapter Thirty-One: Into the Labyrinth Chapter Thirty-Two: Crossing the Beams Chapter Thirty-Three: The Gorgon’s Gaze Chapter Thirty-Four: The Ostomachion Chapter Thirty-Five: Orion’s Nemesis, in Droves Chapter Thirty-Six: Motionless Chapter Thirty-Seven: A Labyrinth of Death Chapter Thirty-Eight: The Wrath of Poseidon Chapter Thirty-Nine: A Potentially Lethal Lifeline Chapter Forty: Coming Back to Life Chapter Forty-One: An Unexpected Saviour Chapter Forty-Two: The Ultimate Sacrifice Chapter Forty-Three: The Aftermath Afterword About the Author A T B LSO AVAILABLE FROM ITAN OOKS Sherlock Holmes: The Thinking Engine James Lovegrove Sherlock Holmes: Gods of War James Lovegrove Sherlock Holmes: The Stuff of Nightmares James Lovegrove Sherlock Holmes: The Patchwork Devil Cavan Scott Sherlock Holmes: The Spirit Box George Mann Sherlock Holmes: The Will of the Dead George Mann Sherlock Holmes: The Breath of God Guy Adams Sherlock Homes: The Army of Dr Moreau Guy Adams Sherlock Holmes: A Betrayal in Blood Mark A. Latham C T B OMING SOON FROM ITAN OOKS Sherlock Holmes: Cry of the Innocents (July 2017) Cavan Scott Sherlock Holmes: The Legacy of Deeds (October 2017) Nick Kyme Sherlock Holmes: The Devil’s Dust (June 2018) James Lovegrove JAMES LOVEGROVE TITAN BOOKS Sherlock Holmes: The Labyrinth of Death Print edition ISBN: 9781785653377 Electronic edition ISBN: 9781785653605 Published by Titan Books A division of Titan Publishing Group Ltd 144 Southwark St, London SE1 0UP First Titan Books edition: June 2017 2 4 6 8 10 9 7 5 3 1 This is a work of fiction. Names, places and incidents are either products of the author’s imagination or used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead (except for satirical purposes), is entirely coincidental. Copyright © 2017 by James Lovegrove. All Rights Reserved. Visit our website: www.titanbooks.com No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means without the prior written permission of the publisher, nor be otherwise circulated in any form of binding or cover other than that in which it is published and without a similar condition being imposed on the subsequent purchaser. A CIP catalogue record for this title is available from the British Library. What did you think of this book? We love to hear from our readers. Please email us at: [email protected], or write to us at the above address. To receive advance information, news, competitions, and exclusive offers online, please sign up for the Titan newsletter on our website. www.titanbooks.com Dedicated to Lou The first (and only) Mrs Lovegrove FOREWORD My great friend Mr Sherlock Holmes is fond of chiding me about these published narratives of mine. Apart from their “meretricious” qualities and the way in which I sacrifice forensic methodicality in favour of literary effect, however, there is one aspect of them that exercises him less frequently but with no less passion. “You tell your readers practically everything about me,” he has said to me on more than one occasion, “and practically nothing about yourself. You reveal to them my moods, methods and motivations at considerable length, my many idiosyncrasies and peccadillos, but about Dr John Watson you disclose precious little by comparison. You are a cipher in your own stories, forever eclipsed by me and at risk of disappearing altogether in my shadow.” “That may be true,” I reply, “but it is how it should be. They are your adventures, Holmes. My task is to recount them as objectively as I can, and to that end I must perforce step into the wings and cede the limelight.” “Nonetheless I imagine the public might care to learn some further personal detail about you, beyond your profession, your love of gambling, your rugby playing, your brother’s sad fate, and your experiences in Afghanistan. There surely must be a case of mine that allows you to share with them a hitherto unilluminated facet of your life history.” Although these words were spoken in jest – the kind of chaffing Holmes is wont to indulge in – they harbour a grain of truth. Hence I am setting down in these pages a series of events that I have chosen to call The Labyrinth of Death, and which will, I trust, colour in a corner of the public picture of myself that has previously lain barely touched.