The Adventure of the Cardboard Box

Miss Susan Cushing of Croydon receives a most unusual package in the mail from Belfast. The cardboard box addressed to her contains two human ears, preserved in salt. Inspector Lestrade of Scotland Yard thinks it’s a prank from the medical students she has had to dismiss. But Sherlock Holmes notices the bad spelling on the address and knows that no-one with a knowledge of medicine would use salt as a preservative. Furthermore, the box was tied with a sailor’s knot. But if it wasn’t pranksters, who sent the package? And why? And what happened to the person with the missing ears? Only Sherlock Holmes can find out.

"The Adventure of the Cardboard Box" is part of "The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes"

Sir Arthur Conan Doyle (1859-1930) was born in Scotland and studied medicine at the University of Edinburgh. After his studies, he worked as a ship’s surgeon on various boats. During the Second Boer War, he was an army doctor in South Africa. When he came back to the United Kingdom, he opened his own practice and started writing crime books. He is best known for his thrilling stories about the adventures of Sherlock Holmes. He published four novels and more than 50 short-stories starring the detective and Dr Watson, and they play an important role in the history of crime fiction. Other than the Sherlock Holmes series, Doyle wrote around thirty more books, in genres such as science-fiction, fantasy, historical novels, but also poetry, plays, and non-fiction.