Sherlock Holmes and the terrible secret: as related from the case notes of Dr. John H. Watson M.D.

It is the start of the First World War. Sherlock Holmes is coaxed out of a short lived retirement to track down an exotic dancer to retrieve a dangerous secret accidentally given to her by a young patent clerk before it falls into the hands of a hostile government.

As much a detective story as a brief history of the causes, reasons and the long term futility of a long forgotten war.