About The Adventure of the Beryl Coronet

Sherlock Holmes calms down his distraught client Alexander Holder, watched by Dr Watson. This illustration by Sidney Paget originally appeared in The Strand Magazine where ‘The Beryl Coronet’ was first published.

The Adventure of the Beryl Coronet tells the story of a bank manager whose world falls apart when he accepts a national treasure as security on a loan, and promptly loses it.

The client, Alexander Holder, believes his gambling-addicted son is to blame when the famous Beryl Coronet is stolen from their family home.

Reduced to a nervous wreck, Holder turns to Sherlock Holmes to confirm that his son is indeed the thief and to help find the missing gems.

But Holmes knows better than to assume guilt at face value. Deciding the boy must be innocent, Holmes begins his quest for the real villain before the country learns of Holder’s calamity.

“Public disgrace I might have faced, although I am a man whose character has never yet borne a stain. Private affliction also is the lot of every man; but the two coming together, and in so frightful a form, have been enough to shake my very soul.”
– Alexander Holder, in The Adventure of the Beryl Coronet