Silver Blaze (CD)

It's the main event if the 1890 horse racing season. All odds favour the great Silver Blaze, a descendant of the immortal Sonomy and every bit as successful as his famous ancestor. The winner receives the coveted Wessex Plate (or Cup) and a cash prize exceeding $1,000. There are only a few days remaining before the race, and national excitement and anticipation is at a fever pitch when...Silver Blaze disappears, the stable boy assigned to stand guard is drugged and the horse's trainer is found dead on the moor with his head smashed in by a heavy weapon. Despite diligent searching by the local constabulary, including interrogation of the gypsies who wander on the lonely moore, no trace of silver Blaze beyond his hoofprints near the dead man's body can be found. The horse has simply vanished into thin air. A suspect, a tout named Fitzroy Simpson, has been apprehended for the trainer's murder and the local police believe they have a strong case against him. But Sherlock Holmes says that a clever lawyer could tear their case to tatters, and assures the horse's owner that Silver Blaze will mysteriously reappear in time to run in the Wessex Plate race. What do a curious surgical knife, the stump of a burnt match, a dog that did nothing in the night-time, and an epidemic of lameness in a herd of sheep have to do with the solution to this bizarre mystery? The Hounds will course hard on the heels of the solution, and on their way will unravel false scents and trails that double back upon themselves. In a few minutes the Maitre de Chasse will release the Hounds who have run swift and true on many a trail, and have not yet been denied their quarry Dr. Watson's introduction to the Holmes case amongthe Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes called "The Adventure of Silver Blaze" (Strand magazine December 1892) is succinct and impossible to improve upon: "There was but one problem before the public which could challenge his powers of analysis, and that was the singular disappearance of the favourite for the Wessex Cup, and the tragic murder of its trainer." As the story unfolds we are taken along for a ride that is constantly on the move across moors, woods, through stables, and a landscape of characters and voices that is rich and evocative of an age of sports rivalries we can fondly recall long after they have passed from the scene. Doyle-and Brit actor/interpreter David Ian Davies-give us brief glimpses into line the workings of the detective's mind. But, as always, the facts fall into line only after Holmes has pieced them properly together.