A letter, written in a secret cipher he recognizes all too well, tells the celebrated sleuth that Abe Slaney, the vicious murderer he once captured after a duel of wits, seems to have risen from the grave. Not only risen from the grave, but also performed another dastardly deed by kidnapping the beautiful widow whose husband he shot dead years earlier. When it transpires that Slaney - or someone - has presumed to impersonate Holmes himself, the great detective begins to glimpse a darker business than he expected. He realizes he will again be matching wits with an adversary who "appeared to possess almost superhuman powers" and whose hatred of Holmes apparently has become the vile killer's single obsession.Chasing the "Conspirator" and his precious prey, a woman whom Holmes is very particularly attached to, from London to New York to Chicago, Holmes and Watson race to keep up. Every move Holmes makes seems to have been anticipated; every trap proves elusive. Only with the assistance of his American cohort, the large-hearted and amply proportioned Irish saloonkeeper Shadwell Rafferty, can Holmes hope to settle the score once and for all. But Holmes has cause to wonder as he rushes from a foggy rendezvous in Lower Manhattan to a wild foray with Rafferty into the Windy City's underworld - whether he will indeed escape his captors or be framed for the crime himself. Read Less