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 5 synopsis, Homes witnesses the death of his Nanny (in Mrs Hudson's apartment) but has no time to grieve before a fascinating visitor thrusts a new mystery upon him. The man's life is in great danger, so Holmes and Watson give him an armed escort to Waterloo station. However, the client makes himself vulnerable to his pursuers by stopping off for refreshment en route at a notorious den of iniquity. When they return to 221B Baker Street they find Professor Moriarty in attendance.
