From the annals of Dr Watson comes this dark tale of Sherlock Holmes' early encounter with Professor Moriarty. When Holmes and Watson receive a cipher from one of Moriarty's henchmen warning of dark doings at a manor house, they find themselves on the trail of a murderer. Almost immediately, they are on their way to Sussex where they discover a corpse with its head blown to pieces. But all is not as it seems. For the origins of this case lie in America, and involve a Pinkerton's man and the doings of a terrible and secretive lodge...