SUNDAY, August 16th at 1:30pm: TEA TIME at Baker Street!

Team Tea Time concludes Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's second collection of Sherlock Holmes Adventures -  "The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes.   

TODAY: "The Final Problem" 

This story, set in 1891, introduces Holmes's greatest opponent, the criminal mastermind Professor James Moriarty. In a cat and mouse game that ranges from the streets of London to the Alpine Europe, Holmes and Watson play a dangerous game as the Great Detective labors to bring an end to a huge organization of criminal lead by the brilliant and devious Moriarty.  It all comes to a climax at the falls - Reichenbach Falls.

One of the legends surrounding this canon of work is that Conan Doyle wanted to finish it off at the end of this story, and so killed Sherlock Holmes.  By the time stories comprising The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes were all published there were two novellas and 24 short stories to this one character.  One might think Sir Arthur reasonably thought he could bring it to a conclusion, and he was said to already be working on the full-length novel The Hound of the Baskervilles which would be the crowning achievement of this canon.  Published in 1904, Hound was said to have re-ignited a fury among readers who demanded Holmes' return.  

Conan Doyle would finally end the canon in 1927 with 56 short story adventures, two novellas, two full length novels and a smattering of short adventures and parodies - many generated by the author himself.  And as we know today, over a hundred years after Holmes first went over the falls, the canon remains a fertile franchise; taking on new forms and new variations even as the writing itself changed the science and method detection in Britain and all over the world. 

BONUS: An encore presentation of the hilarious parody story "The Mystery of the Spot Ball"

Corwyn Allen, Kayden Oconnell, and Caledonia Skytower live in voice

SUNDAY, April 21st at 1:30pm: TEA TIME at Baker Street!

Corwyn and Caledonia conclude this series of Tea Times with the very last chapter from The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes: THE FINAL PROBLEM.

It was first published in Strand Magazine in December 1893. Conan Doyle later ranked "The Final Problem" fourth on his personal list of the twelve best Holmes stories. This story, set in 1891, introduces Holmes's greatest opponent, the criminal mastermind Professor Moriarty.

Holmes arrives at Dr. Watson's one evening in a somewhat agitated state and with grazed and bleeding knuckles. He has apparently escaped three murder attempts that day after a visit from Professor Moriarty, who warned Holmes to withdraw from his pursuit of justice against him to avoid any regrettable outcome.  Holmes manages to outwit his assailants but admitted that there was virtually no hope of proving that the man was in the employ of the criminal mastermind.

Holmes has been tracking Moriarty and his agents for months and is on the brink of snaring them all and delivering them to the dock. Moriarty is the criminal genius behind a highly organized and extremely secret criminal force and Holmes will consider it the crowning achievement of his career if only he can defeat Moriarty. Moriarty is out to thwart Holmes's plans and is well capable of doing so, for he is, as Holmes admits, the great detective's intellectual equal.

Presented Live in Voice.