Dr. Watson was the chronicler of every Sherlock Holmes adventure published in The Strand magazine between 1887 and 1927. He reported them with honesty in the bluff, army-style of a military doctor, so frank in their account of human behaviour that they were too risque for the morals of Victorian England. George Newnes, the editor, purged each story before its publication. Newnes also replaced Watson's jocular illustrations with Sidney Paget's more innocuous portrayals. Newnes deleted everybody's backgrounds but in these accounts Watson reveals Holmes's family: his father, Professor Julian Cornelius Bortzoy Holmes; his wife, Wendy; his sister, Rachel, as well as Mycroft. Watson also exposes Mrs. Hudson's property empire and he tells us how Professor Moriarty became "the Napoleon of crime." Some of this new material is shocking, even by today's standards!
Book 11 synopsis, Holmes and Watson are given an early morning surprise when a well-dressed man visits 221B Baker Street. Events of the night before have sent the City banker into a frenzy and he starts to tear his hair out in front of the great detective. Holmes and Watson travel to south London, to the modest home of their new client, only to find a dispirate family at loggerheads over something that went bump in the night. The finger of guilt is pointed firmly at the client's son but Holmes thinks differently and launches himself into the mystery whilst Watson evokes an extraordinary metal-bending practice from his army days in India, with calamitous results. The adventure ends with an initiation for Dr. Watson to The Diogenes Club.