The third adventure in The Ordeals of Sherlock Holmes by Big Finish opens by doing what it says on the tin.  A woman is being interrogated and then tortured and killed by judicious use of knives by a poetry-loving woman and her knife-wielding cohort.

THE ADVENTURE OF THE BEMONDSEY CUTTHROATS

Following the opening theme, Dr Watson (Richard Earl) informs us, through his writing, that it’s 1903.  Sherlock Holmes (Nicholas Briggs) has been working on his own for some time due to Dr Watson’s preoccupation with his marriage and his medical practice.  With his wife currently away visiting, Watson takes it upon himself to visit his old friend at Baker Street.

Holmes is in a heated conversation with Winchester Bartley-Gower (Michael Cochrane).  Bartely-Gower, the industrialist, is agitated by an increasing number of death threats but Holmes is refusing to help due to the man’s secretive nature regarding his past.  Watson tries to intercede and calm the waters between the two men, but Holmes is adamant that he cannot and will not work on a case in which information is being purposefully withheld from him.  He’s had occasion in the past to regret making deductions and conclusions based on inadequate information, such as the Hinderclay affair, and he’s not prepared to risk that again.

Bartley-Gower is shown out by Watson who sees that his driver is an attractive blonde-haired young lady.

The following day, after an arduous day at his practice due to the inclement weather bringing out an inordinate number of hypochondriacs, Watson espies the headline on the front of a newspaper which causes him to race back to Holmes.  Holmes, deep in contemplation, is already aware that Bartely-Gower has been found dead.

They’re interrupted by two inspectors – one of which is their old colleague, Inspector Lestrade.  Prior to the death of Bartely-Gower, there had been seven similar deaths, one per day over the last week.  The only connection between the victims, beyond the fact that they were killed in the same way – their throats slit from ear-to-ear, are their surnames, each of which is a name from a case that Holmes was responsible for solving and each one featured in a case published by Dr Watson.

It seems abhorrent that the multiple deaths were staged merely to draw in Holmes, but the detective is anxious to visit the scenes of the crimes, even though he’s aware that it’s probably too late to discern anything new since the police would have trampled all evidence into the ground.  Holmes asks Watson to stay behind in anticipation of further news but, Watson suspects, more for his own safety.

Once Holmes has gone with the inspectors, Watson’s solitude is interrupted by the arrival of Bartley-Gower’s secretary, the driver Watson had seen before.  An incident outside distracts Watson sufficiently for the woman to spike Watson’s brandy and it’s not long before he succumbs to unconsciousness and then wakes, bound and immobile at the mercy of the woman and her cohort.

The Adventure of the Bermondsey Cutthroats throws the listener straight into the action.  It moves along at a good pace whilst still retaining its faithful recreation of Conan Doyle’s original works.  The reassuring narration by Dr Watson is the solid core by which the story is delivered thanks to the continued listenable voice of Richard Earl.  Nicholas Briggs presents us with a lively Holmes, taking us through various high anxiety voices rather than the more usual subdued nature that the Holmes stories require.

THE ORDEALS OF SHERLOCK HOLMES

Now that we’re into the third story of The Ordeals of Sherlock Holmes we start to appreciate how each of the adventures takes place in different decades of Holmes’ career, and we get brief insights into how his relationship with Watson, and how each of Watson’s and Holmes’ own lives, changed throughout the years.  As Holmes listeners, we’re all aware that both characters changed and developed in certain ways between the 1880s and 1920s, but it’s rare for this to be so apparent as it is with these stories that are presented so close together.

The familiarity of some elements of the stories (such as Holmes refusing to help when his potential client is secretive about the facts required) reassuringly keeps the adventure firmly in the Conan Doyle style, and this is one of the many strengths of Jonathan Barnes’ recreation of the Sherlock Holmes world.  In an age where TV and film seem desperate to deviate from the original source material in some vain effort to stamp their mark or in the misguided belief that they are better able to define Conan Doyle’s creation than he was himself, it’s with great relief to know that there are some writers out there with the ability to continue Conan Doyle’s work with respect and dignity.