The Adventure of the Norwood Builder, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
The Adventure of the Norwood Builder, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
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The Adventure of the Norwood Builder
A Sherlock Holmes Mystery

Author: Sir Arthur Conan Doyle

Narrator: David Clarke

Unabridged: 58 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Published: 11/04/2024

Synopsis

Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson are visited by John Hector McFarlane, a young lawyer from Blackheath who has been accused of murdering one of his clients – builder Jonas Oldacre. McFarlane explains to Holmes that Oldacre had come to his office the day before and asked him to draw up his will in proper legal form. To his surprise, Oldacre was making him the sole beneficiary to a considerable bequest. Later, McFarlane went to Oldacre's house in Lower Norwood to deliver the will and go over some additional documents. McFarlane left quite late and stayed at a local inn. On the train the next morning, he read in the newspaper about the apparent murder and that the police were looking for him.The evidence against McFarlane is quite damning: his bloody stick was found in Oldacre's study, and outside is a pile of dry timber burnt to ashes, smelling of burnt flesh. Inspector Lestrade, who comes to arrest McFarlane, gloats in the apparent knowledge that he is on the right track. Holmes begins his own investigation by going to Blackheath instead of Norwood. There he learns that McFarlane's mother was once engaged to Oldacre, but broke up with him once she found out his cruel nature. Holmes also notes that Oldacre's draft will was written in a very haphazard fashion, as if he didn't care about it. Holmes also discovers large payments from Oldacre's bank account to a "Mr Cornelius". Holmes then visits Oldacre's house, where he inspects the study. Lestrade produces Oldacre's trouser buttons, found in the ashes of the fire. Holmes fears the worst: "All my instincts are in one direction, and all the facts are in another." Still, Holmes suspects Oldacre's housekeeper is deliberately withholding information.

About Sir Arthur Conan Doyle

Arthur Conan Doyle, a Scottish writer whose works include science fiction stories, historical novels, plays, romances, poetry, and nonfiction, is best known as the creator of the detective Sherlock Holmes. While Holmes was the embodiment of scientific thinking, Doyle himself did not exhibit the same rationality, believing in fairies and occultism. His Sherlock Holmes stories have been translated into more than fifty languages and have been made into plays, films, radio and television series, cartoons, and comic books. By 1920, Doyle was one of the most highly paid writers in the world. Other works by Doyle include The Lost World, the first book in the Professor Challenger series; The White Company, one of his many historical novels; and The Great Boer War.

Doyle was born at Picardy Place, near Edinburgh, in 1859. He was educated in Jesuit schools and studied at Edinburgh University. In 1884, he married Louise Hawkins. Doyle qualified as a doctor in 1885 and practiced medicine as an eye specialist in Hampshire until 1891, when he became a full-time writer. Doyle's first Sherlock Holmes story, A Study in Scarlet, was published in 1887 and introduced the detective's faithful associate, Dr. Watson.

During the Boer war in South Africa (1899-1902), Doyle served several months as the senior physician at a field hospital. There he wrote The War in South Africa, in which he expressed the imperial view. He twice ran unsuccessfully for Parliament but nevertheless was knighted in 1902. In 1907, fourteen months after his wife died, Doyle married Jean Leckie. After his son Kingsley died in the first World War, Doyle dedicated himself to spiritualistic studies at his home in Windlesham, Sussex. He died himself in 1930.

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