It’s a mystery that even the legendary sleuth Sherlock Holmes might struggle to crack.
How a book by his creator Sir Arthur Conan Doyle turned up at a library in Finland 85 years after it should have been returned.
The novel – a thrilling historical adventure set in the court of France’s King Louis XIV – was written in 1893 a year after The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes (1892).
It was handed in at Helsinki’s Oodi Central Library on 27th May and had been overdue since 26th December 1939.
It is still unclear who handed it in but library spokesperson Emma-Lotta Tynkkynen told local media: “It’s nice to have it back.”
And, like vintage Holmes, she listed a series of clues that the legendary detective would have noted.
She explained: “The book is in surprisingly good condition. The binding is intact and there are no major stains. It’s in readable condition.”
Local media reported that in 2015, the Pukinmaki Library in Helsinki had received a Sherlock Holmes book that was 87 years overdue.
And a year later a book 80 years past its return date was handed in to the Municipal Library in Laihia, in the west of Finland.
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Story By: Joseph Golder, Sub-Editor: Joseph Golder, Agency: Newsflash
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