All The Greek Interpreter

The Greek Interpreter

The story has been ascribed to a summer in the years 1885-7. It was published in The Strand Magazine in September 1893 and is one of the eleven stories contained in the compilation ‘The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes’. It is the story in which Arthur Conan Doyle introduces us for the first time to Sherlock’s brother Mycroft. Mycroft is a special adviser to the government and has rooms in Pall Mall Chambers. He introduces Holmes and Watson to one of his fellow residents a Mr Melas who provides Greek interpretation services to visitors to London. Melas was kidnapped and taken out of London to interpret between two men who were holding a Greek man captive. Having fulfilled this service Melas was abandoned on Wandsworth Common and warned not to tell anyone of what had happened to him. Concerned for the Greek prisoner he approached Mycroft who passes the case to Sherlock. Information suggests that the prisoner is being held in a house at Beckenham. As Holmes, Watson and Gregson set off to free the captives, Melas is kidnapped again and the rescue becomes one against time and not everyone will survive.