The Conservatory at Bramshaw Hall

A guest shot through the heart in a glass conservatory. Both doors bolted from the inside. The only ventilators are nine inches square and ten feet up.

“Holmes at the desk”
Sidney Paget · The Strand Magazine, February 1893 · Public Domain

Section I

The Scene

Setting: Bramshaw Hall, near Winchester, Hampshire - the conservatory adjoining the morning-room
Time: Saturday afternoon and evening, 9 May 1896 (the murder having been the previous day)
Weather: A clear, mild May; the gardens in early bloom
Atmosphere: A respectable country house in a settled mood of horror, the family gathered in the drawing-room, the doctor and the local inspector come and gone.

The rest of the edition is reserved.

Sign in with Google to read the rest.

Today’s case is free for every reader. Back issues open with a free Google sign-in, limited to three archive reads each calendar month. Strand subscribers may roam the full archive at will.