The Adventure of The Lion's Mane opens in Sussex in the summer of 1907 as the detective is enjoying his retirement by the seaside. As Holmes and his good friend Harold Stackhurst exchange warm greetings on this July morning, a well known science master, Fitzroy McPherson, suddenly staggers up from the beach and collapses. Within minutes he is dead, his body savagely raked by livid 'lashing' marks, such as those inflicted by a wire scourge. His dying words, "the Lion's Mane" begin Holmes' search for the savage, merciless killer.
