It’s 1919 by the time of the fourth story in the Big Finish audio epic The Ordeals of Sherlock Holmes.  Holmes is well retired by this time, whilst Watson is enjoying a slower pace of life with his third wife.  Set some 16 years after The Bermondsey Cutthroats, The Sowers of Despair taps into The Adventure of the Perfidious Mariner, which was set in the wake of the Titanic disaster, so it’s probably best to listen to that one beforehand.

Late one evening, Sherlock Holmes visits Watson with a tale of having seen a newspaper photo of Mrs Edgar Curbishley (Tracey Childs), the nefarious woman who caused problems for J Bruce Ismay in The Adventure of the Perfidious Mariner.  The tired Watson is pleased, but less than enthusiastic, stating that if she’s come out of hiding she’ll now be able to be brought to justice.

THE SOWERS OF DESPAIR

Trouble is that Curbishley is working for a newly formed European country and Holmes has learned, via his brother Mycroft, that the British government doesn’t want to risk diplomatic relations in the birth of this country and so will take no direct action.  That doesn’t prevent Sherlock Holmes from taking it upon himself to take a trip for the purposes of observation, confirmation, and evidence gathering.  In this endeavour, he wishes for the company of Watson and the protection of the good Doctor’s firearm.  At first Watson is not so enthused, but promises to discuss the matter with his wife before making a decision.

Staying up all night smoking, as is his wont, Holmes overhears a heated discussion between Watson and his wife.  At breakfast the following morning, the woman is noticeable by her absence, but Watson has resolved to accompany his friend on the journey to the capital of the small European country, on the understanding that he’ll be back home by Christmas.  During the journey, they rekindle their friendship and their enthusiasm for “the chase”.

On the final train, they’re surprised to run into their prey.  Curbishley is on-board, and she seems unsurprised by the presence of her travelling companions.  Indeed, she seems to know an awful lot about their lives.  She points out that there’s little they can do to her, for they have no evidence with which to make an arrest.

Inaction and the inability to see justice done disturbs Watson, but the journey continues as he and Holmes consider their actions.  Holmes awakes in the night, finding that Watson has vanished from the cabin.  Seeking his friend, he comes across a disturbance.  A mutilated body, cut from ear-to-ear, has been found and the train conductor discovered a man leaning over the body of Mrs Edgar Curbishley – that man was Dr Watson.

With Watson secured in the cargo carriage, and the conductor not willing to allow Holmes to investigate – believing that the “old man” has nothing to offer – Holmes is allowed a few minutes to talk with his friend.  Watson regrets his impulsiveness and realises that he fell right into Curbishley’s trap without thinking.  Holmes reassures his old friend that he will prove his innocence, but he’s hampered when the conductor puts a guard on his own cabin, denying him the chance to inspect the scene of the crime.

At the next station, Holmes is able to move into the buffet car as previous passengers alight and new ones board.  As the train pulls away, Sherlock gazes absently into the crowd on the platform.  There he sees, waving at him boldly, Mrs Edgar Curbishley.  The whole murder trap was a ploy to delay him and Watson from pursuing justice and, Holmes believes, the only way it could have been pulled off was if the conductor had been involved.

Holmes accosts the conductor outside the cargo carriage and is thrown in with Watson for his trouble.  For his part, Watson hasn’t been idle.  He’s managed to weaken one of the support walls on the carriage and, with a little extra effort combined with his enthusiasm for the freedom to seek justice, he breaks it down and they both abscond to freedom before the train picks up too much speed.  They’re now on foot, and the game is afoot, as they pursue their prey once more.

Although it hasn’t been all that long since I listened to The Adventure of the Perfidious Mariner, I did find myself searching my thoughts as I tried to recall Mrs Edgar Curbishey, before wishing that I’d been a little more thorough in my review of that adventure to aid that searching.  Given that this box-set has been linking stories within itself, it’s with some surprise that the primary antagonist in this fourth part relies somewhat on knowledge of a character from some other adventure.  A little assistance from the writer bringing us up to speed on Curbishley would indeed have helped and, for those who haven’t yet listened to the previous tale, it would be essential to prevent a feeling of alienation.  There have, surely, been enough villains in this series of adventures and, indeed, enough female villains, to draw from without the need to bring in yet another one from outside.

THE ORDEALS OF SHERLOCK HOLMES

Nevertheless, given that The Adventure of the Bermondsey Cutthroats did also act as a somewhat of a prequel to The Adventure of the Perfidious Mariner, it’s probably not without precedent that the villain from that story also be present here.  However, given that to be the case, it would probably have served a better purpose for The Adventure of the Perfidious Mariner to form part of this box-set – either by dropping the second story so that it could be the third, or making this a five-story set.

To the adventure itself, The Sowers of Despair has the feel of The Final Problem about it, with the journey across Europe.  The one thing that can’t be denied about Jonathan Barnes is his ability to draw on the strengths of Conan Doyle’s original works and weave a new adventure from the threads.  This skill ensures that, regardless of the actual plot points and characters, the stories have a very “Conan Doyle” feel about them.  That is, most definitely, the key highlight of this range of Sherlock Holmes stories.

When a story begins with Sherlock chronicling it, instead of Watson, we know that something monumental is the cause and Holmes acknowledges this from the off.  Whilst it makes a change to have Holmes narrating the story, we do rather miss Richard Earl’s voice.  Nicholas Briggs makes for a splendid Holmes, but his Holmes doesn’t convey the narrative beauty of Earl’s Watson.  That’s probably as it should be, however.

I recall from the many radio adventures from Basil Rathbone and Nigel Bruce that the strength of that series was in Bruce’s Watson doing all of the congenial “talking to the listener via the presenter” stuff and Holmes was there for the detached emotionless logic of the story.  The contrast is there for a reason, otherwise Holmes would be narrating all the stories and that would not be to any Sherlock Holmes series best advantage.

One of the advantages of doing “retired Holmes” stories is that we don’t necessarily expect the same detached emotionlessness from Holmes as we do when he’s at the height of his powers and this goes some way towards convincing us that this is, indeed, an older Sherlock.

I approach the final half-hour of this 4-hour “epic” with some anticipation.  I feel sure that Barnes will tie up the Curbishley story such that it will feed through all three previous adventures, even if there seems no hint at doing so at this point.  I’m glad that I have further adventures to listen to with the later box-sets and expect that they will maintain or exceed the quality of that which I’ve listened to thus far.