I'm Hugh Bonneville and welcome to Sherlock Holmes' short stories, the series where we delve into the files of fiction's most brilliant detective,

following his keen mind and unerring instincts from the first subtle clue to the final dramatic revelation.

This time, Holmes investigates a grisly murder in The Adventure of Black Peter.

In a lonely cabin on the edge of the woods, a retired sea captain lies dead,

pinned to the wall by his own harpoon.

But no one weeps for the man known as Black Peter,

a violent drunk who terrorized his family, neighbors and colleagues.

With a list of enemies that stretches from the Arctic seas to the Sussex countryside,

the question Holmes faces is not why someone would want to kill the old seaman,

but which one of his victims finally took revenge.

From the Noyser Podcast Network, this is The Adventure of Black Peter, part one. Part One I have never known my friend to be in better form, both mental and physical, than in the

year 95.

His increasing fame had brought with it an immense practice, and I should be guilty of an indiscretion if I were even to hint at the identity of some of the

illustrious clients who crossed our humble threshold in Baker Street. Holmes, however, like all great

artists, lived for his arts sake, and,

save in the case of the Duke of Holderness, I have seldom known him claim any large reward for his

inestimable services. So unworldly was he, or so capricious, "'that he frequently refused his help to the powerful and wealthy,

"'where the problem made no appeal to his sympathies,

"'while he would devote weeks of most intense application

"'to the affairs of some humble client

"'whose case presented those strange and dramatic qualities,

"'which appealed to his imagination and challenged his ingenuity.

...