Professor Moriarty is on the case, or is he, in 'The Empress of India'
Date published: 4/2/2006
By DAN DERVIN
For THE FREE LANCE-STAR
How refreshing to find a mystery that doesn't start with a beautiful corpse being washed ashore in the Crimea or some similar exotic locale. We do have the Empress of India at risk on the high seas, but the subject of interest is a steamship not a lady.
The real interest in the ship lies in its cargo hold of gold bullion being transferred from Calcutta to the Bank of London.
It is 1890, the Age of Empire, and some of the more progressive princes and maharajas are exchanging this treasure for paper currency. But word has leaked both to the upper classes and the lower orders, and the safety of the shipment is in jeopardy.
All security precautions have been taken, but the bank's CEO, the Honorable Eustace Bergarot, takes the extraordinary step of consulting the most brilliant authority on the criminal mind, Mr. Sherlock Holmes.
Holmes brings Watson along to a private dinner at the bank, where, over brandy and cigars, tales are traded. Watson has cited a few famous cases, and when Bergarot's turn comes, he recalls a troubling incident many years ago when a stranger invited the bankers to join him in the innermost bullion vaults. How did he manage to breach security? It turned out he worked in the London sewers and had accidentally come upon an ancient drain connecting to the bank's vault.
The next day Holmes takes Watson along to investigate the sewer systems firsthand and disappears with a rush of water below a manhole cover. With Holmes out of the way, the coast is clear for his archenemy Professor Moriarty to enter the fray. At first a suspect, he becomes intrigued by the gold project and is soon in a race with a notorious underground criminal Pin Dok Low to intercept the gold.
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