Exit Sherlock Holmes: The Great Detective's Final Days

New York: Charles Scribner's Sons. Very Good+ in Near Fine dj. (c.1977). First Edition. Hardcover. [spine slightly turned, minor soiling to top edge, previous owner's name plus date & place of purchase and brief comment in ink on front endpaper; jacket shows some light surface wear, vertical surface-scratch at bottom of rear panel, minor wrinkling along top edge]. "This volume brings to light one of the most sensational secrets in the history of crime. Almost half a century ago, Dr. John H. Watson, lying close to death in a London hospital, composed what appears to be the final account of the career of Sherlock Holmes. Sealed in a tin dispatch box for the ensuing decades, it has been uncovered at last only as the result of an extraordinary bequest. And what a revelation it is!" Gotta love the conceit here: The author "claims to be the only surviving grandson and heir of the late Emily Percy Hall, goddaughter of Violet Watson, Dr. John H. Watson's second wife," and who (of course!) has recently inherited the aforementioned tin dispatch box, wherein has been discovered this hitherto unknown chronicle exposing all kinds of juicy information about Sherlock Holmes' background. (He is not, I believe, the only author of Holmes pastiches who has come into possession of a similar box.) .