The Adventure of the Lion's Mane: The story opens in Sussex in the summer of 1907 as the detective is enjoying his retirement by the seaside. As Holmes and his good friend Harold Stackhurst exchange warm greetings on this July morning, a well-known science master, Fitzroy McPherson, suddenly staggers up from the beach and collapses. Within minutes he is dead, his body savagely raked by livid "lashing" marks, such as those inflicted by a wire scourge. His dying words, "the lion's mane", begin Holmes' search for the savage, merciless killer.

The Adventure of the Veiled Lodger: Sherlock Holmes is summoned by a woman whose face, years before, was horribly disfigured during an attack by a circus lion. Upon his arrival with Watson, the woman, her face perpetually hidden by a heavy veil, tells them she knows she does not have long to live and wishes to finally reveal what really happened on that awful day.

The Adventure of Shoscombe Old Place: Evidence of murder, ransacked ancient mummies, giving away a beloved dog, and a horse race upon which a man's life and future depend are just four of the elements of this Holmes story, making it one of the most memorable (and chilling) cases in the Holmesian canon.

The Adventure of the Retired Colourman: Sherlock Holmes begins to suspect there is more to the story of a depressed, pathetic client, sent to Holmes by Scotland Yard, than the man would have anyone know.