“Adventure of the Tortoise Shell” on Imagination Theater!!!

October 1882. Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson are in the sitting room of 221B Baker Street. Holmes reads a letter.

HOLMES: “’Dear Mr Sherlock Holmes, Can you… ‘eh? Come now, this is too much!  Apparently I am now a common tradesman!”

“After you fix the leaky pipes, find out why my dog didn’t bark in the night, you tradesman you!”

What has the Great Detective so piqued?

HOLMES: “’Dear Mr Sherlock Holmes, Can you please be available at Pennington Millinery on Oxford Street at twelve o’clock this morning regarding a matter of concern? Yours, Marshal Pennington.’”

WATSON: “It seems a reasonable request.”

But Holmes does not think it is at all reasonable.

HOLMES: “I am a consulting detective.  Clients come here and here I provide them with advice.  That is the essence of my profession. I go out when I decide the complexity of a case requires it.  Not when I am summoned under some expectation.”

But then Holmes remembers that his consulting detective business is still new and he has his half of the rent to pay and his stock of cheese and bread is running somewhat low, so…

HOLMES: “Perhaps it might be prudent to be the bigger man in this case.”

But what is the case?

Why it’s The Adventure of the Tortoise Shell!

* * *

It has been eleven years since “A Case of Unfinished Business” debuted on The Further Adventures of Sherlock Holmes on Imagination Theater.

“It’s finally time for a little sponge cake and a little wine and to listen to ‘The Tortoise Shell.'”

Eleven years since my last Holmes radio pastiche!

Well, to paraphrase Inspector Kemp from Young Frankenstein, “I zink id’s abowt time ve had an-uther un!” And that time is Saturday November 18 at 8PM PST when “The Adventure of the Tortoise Shell” makes its Imagination Theater debut on Seattle’s KIXI 880AM.

“But what’s it about?” you ask.

Well, here’s the pitch!

Just what secrets are buried under this Oxford Street building across from Pennington Millinery in London? There is only one way to find out!

Now you may ask, “How can a treasure be morally corrupt?”

I’m afraid if you want to find out then you’re just going to have to listen to this new audio drama, which, by the way, is based (in part) on my Holmes pastiche “The Adventure of the Missing Crossing Sweeper” published earlier this year. It also features the incredible team of John Patrick Lowrie (the voice of Sniper to you fans of Team Fortress 2) as Holmes and Lawrence Albert as Dr. Watson.

And if you don’t happen to live in Seattle there are plenty of other radio stations you can catch it on. Just click here for a list of all the radio stations that Imagination Theater is syndicated on.

But if terrestrial radio isn’t your bag there is more good news! You can listen to The Adventure of the Tortoise Shell for a limited time on the Imagination Theater YouTube Channel starting around Saturday November 26. You can also download it or purchase it on a USB flash drive, both of which will be for sale at the Imagination Theater website starting around November 18.