The Problem of Thor Bridge

File:The Problem of Thor Bridge by G. Patrick Nelson 3.jpg]]

Neil Gibson, the Gold King and former senator from "some Western state", approaches Sherlock Holmes to investigate the murder of his wife Maria in order to clear his children's governess, Grace Dunbar, of the crime. It soon emerges that Mr Gibson's marriage had been unhappy and he treated his wife very badly. He had fallen in love with her when he met her in Brazil, but soon realised they had nothing in common. He became attracted to Miss Dunbar; since he could not marry her, he had attempted to please her in other ways, such as trying to help people less fortunate than himself.

Maria Gibson was found lying in a pool of blood on Thor Bridge with a bullet through the head and note from the governess, agreeing to a meeting at that location, in her hand. A recently discharged revolver with one shot fired is found in Miss Dunbar's wardrobe. Holmes agrees to look at the situation in spite of the damning evidence.

From the outset, Holmes observes some rather odd things about the case. How could Miss Dunbar so coolly and rationally have planned and carried out the murder and then carelessly tossed the murder weapon into her wardrobe? What was the strange chip on the underside of the bridge's stone balustrade? Why was Mrs Gibson clutching the note from Miss Dunbar when she died? If the murder weapon was one of a matched pair of pistols, why couldn't the other one be found in Mr Gibson's collection?

Holmes uses his powers of deduction to solve the crime, and demonstrates, using Watson's revolver, how it was perpetrated: Mrs Gibson, outraged and jealous of Miss Dunbar's relationship with her husband, resolved to end her own life and frame her rival for the crime. After arranging a meeting with Miss Dunbar, requesting her to leave her response in a note, Mrs Gibson tied a rock on a piece of string to the end of a revolver, and shot herself, the rock pulling the revolver over the side of the bridge; the revolver found in Miss Dunbar's wardrobe was the other pistol of the pair, which had been fired off in the woods earlier, and the chip in the bridge was caused by the pistol hitting the stonework as it was pulled off by the rock. Holmes's reconstruction reproduces the damage to the balustrade of the bridge. He asks the police to drag the lake for the revolvers of Watson and Gibson.

The story is notable within the Sherlock Holmes canon for the initial reference to a tin dispatchbox, located within the vaults of the Cox and Co. Bank at Charing Cross in London, where Dr. Watson kept the papers concerning some of Holmes' unsolved or unfinished cases.{{cite book |last1=Riley|first1=Dick|last2=McAllister|first2=Pam|title=The Bedside, Bathtub & Armchair Companion to Sherlock Holmes|url=https://archive.org/details/bedsidebathtubar00dick_0|url-access=registration|publisher=Continuum|year=1999|page=[https://archive.org/details/bedsidebathtubar00dick_0/page/185 185]|ISBN=0-8264-1116-9}} According to Watson: "Among these unfinished tales is that of Mr. James Phillimore, who, stepping back into his own house to get his umbrella, was never more seen in this world".{{cite book |last=Bunson|first=Matthew|author-link=Matthew Bunson| title=Encyclopedia Sherlockiana |year=1997 |publisher=Simon & Schuster |page=192 |ISBN=0-02-861679-0}} The unknown fate of Phillimore has been a subject for many subsequent stories including: The Disappearance of Mr. James Phillimore by Ellery Queen;{{Cite book |last=Nevins |first=Francis M. |title=Ellery Queen: The Art of Detection |publisher=Perfect Crime Books |year=2013 |isbn=9781935797470}} The Adventure of the Highgate Miracle by Adrian Conan Doyle and John Dickson Carr; The Enigma of the Warwickshire Vortex by F. Gwynplaine MacIntyre;{{cite book |last1=Watt |first1=Peter Ridgway |last2=Green|first2=Joseph|title=The Alternative Sherlock Holmes: Pastiches, Parodies and Copies |year=2003 |publisher=Routledge |page=59 |ISBN=978-0754608820}} The Problem of the Sore Bridge by Philip J. Farmer; one episode of the Italian comic book series Storie di Altrove (a spin-off from the more famous Martin Mystère); Bert Coules's BBC Radio adaptation The Singular Inheritance of Miss Gloria Wilson from The Further Adventures of Sherlock Holmes;{{cite web|title=The Further Adventures|url=http://www.merrisonholmes.com/further_adventures.php|website=the BBC complete audio SHERLOCK HOLMES|accessdate=5 December 2018}} and two books by Marvin Kaye, The Incredible Umbrella (Doubleday, 1979) and The Amorous Umbrella (Doubleday, 1981). Also mentioned are the case of Isadora Persano, "who was found stark staring mad with a match box in front of him which contained a remarkable worm said to be unknown to science" and that of the cutter Alicia.

"The Problem of Thor Bridge" was published in the UK in The Strand Magazine in two parts in February and March 1922, and in the US in Hearst's International in the same months.{{sfn|Smith|2014|p=184}} The story was published with seven illustrations by A. Gilbert in the Strand,{{sfn|Cawthorne|2011|p=160}} and with six illustrations by G. Patrick Nelson in Hearst's International.{{cite web |url=https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=mdp.39015007008777&view=1up&seq=96 |website=HathiTrust Digital Library |access-date=14 November 2020 |title=Hearst's international. v.41 1922 |pages=96–97, 159, 192–193, 239}} It was included in the short story collection The Case-Book of Sherlock Holmes,{{sfn|Cawthorne|2011|p=160}} which was published in the UK and the US in June 1927.{{sfn|Cawthorne|2011|p=151}}

"The Problem of Thor Bridge" was adapted as a short silent film titled The Mystery of Thor Bridge in 1923 as part of the Sherlock Holmes film series by Stoll Pictures. It starred Eille Norwood as Sherlock Holmes and Hubert Willis as Dr. Watson.{{cite book |last=Eyles |first=Allen |title=Sherlock Holmes: A Centenary Celebration |page=[https://archive.org/details/sherlockholmesce0000eyle/page/132 132] |publisher=Harper & Row |year=1986 |isbn=9780060156206 |url=https://archive.org/details/sherlockholmesce0000eyle|url-access=registration }}

The story was adapted for the Sherlock Holmes 1968 BBC series with Peter Cushing,{{cite book |last=Barnes|first=Alan| author-link=Alan Barnes (writer) |title=Sherlock Holmes on Screen |year=2011 |publisher=Titan Books|pages=242–243 |ISBN=9780857687760}} but the episode is now lost.{{cite web|author=Stuart Douglas - www.thiswaydown.org |url=http://www.thiswaydown.org/missing-episodes/holmes.htm |title=Missing Episodes |publisher=missing-episodes.com |date= |accessdate=2013-03-10}}

The story was also dramatised in 1991 in Granada TV's series Sherlock Holmes starring Jeremy Brett with Daniel Massey as Neil Gibson, Celia Gregory as Maria Gibson, and Catherine Russell as Grace Dunbar.{{cite book |last=Haining|first=Peter|author-link=Peter Haining (author) |title=The Television Sherlock Holmes |year=1994 |publisher=Virgin Books |page=233 |ISBN=0-86369-793-3}}

A similar framing method is used in Murder, She Wrote, Season 8, Episode 17 (1992) "To the Last Will I Grapple with Thee".{{citation needed|date=December 2018}}

In the 2005 CSI: Crime Scene Investigation episode "Who Shot Sherlock?" (Season 5, Episode 11), the method of killing was mostly similar, with changes including the chip coming off the gun instead of the stonework (of a fireplace). But rather than a suicide staged to frame one of the suspects, it turned out another suspect had staged the death.{{citation needed|date=January 2020}}

The professor in Elementary, Season 1, Episode 9 (2012), has the same motive as Mrs Gibson and a similar framing method.{{cite web|last=O'Leary|first=James C.|title=Elementary and the Hound|url=https://www.ihearofsherlock.com/2016/03/elementary-and-hound.html|website=I Hear of Sherlock Everywhere|date=25 March 2016 |accessdate=5 December 2018}} The same cause of death deduced by Holmes in this story is used in the opening sequence of the same series, Season 2, Episode 9 (2013), with the same intent of throwing suspicion on to another party.

"The Problem of Thor Bridge" was adapted by Edith Meiser as an episode of the American radio series The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes. The episode aired on 16 March 1931, with Richard Gordon as Sherlock Holmes and Leigh Lovell as Dr. Watson.{{sfn|Dickerson|2019|p=28}} Another radio dramatisation of the story aired on 13 June 1936 (with Gordon as Holmes and Harry West as Watson).{{sfn|Dickerson|2019|p=75}}

Meiser also adapted the story for the American radio series The New Adventures of Sherlock Holmes as an episode that aired on 3 November 1940. Another adaptation of the story aired on 1 October 1945. Both episodes starred Basil Rathbone as Holmes and Nigel Bruce as Watson.{{sfn|Dickerson|2019|pages=96, 180}}

A radio adaptation titled "Thor Bridge" aired in 1962 on the BBC Light Programme, as part of the 1952–1969 radio series starring Carleton Hobbs as Holmes and Norman Shelley as Watson. It was dramatised by Michael Hardwick. Robert Ayres played J. Neil Gibson.{{cite book |last=De Waal |first=Ronald Burt |title=The World Bibliography of Sherlock Holmes |year=1974 |publisher=Bramhall House |page=[https://archive.org/details/worldbibliograph00dewa/page/389 389] |isbn=0-517-217597 |url=https://archive.org/details/worldbibliograph00dewa|url-access=registration }}

"The Problem of Thor Bridge" was dramatised for BBC Radio 4 in 1994 by Bert Coules as part of the 1989–1998 radio series starring Clive Merrison as Holmes and Michael Williams as Watson, featuring William Hootkins as J. Neil Gibson.{{cite web |url=http://merrisonholmes.com/casebook.php|title=The Casebook of Sherlock Holmes |access-date=12 December 2016|website=The BBC complete audio Sherlock Holmes |first=Bert |last=Coules}}

In 2012, the story was adapted for radio as part of The Classic Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, a series on the American radio show Imagination Theatre, with John Patrick Lowrie as Holmes and Lawrence Albert as Watson.{{cite web |url=https://www.old-time.com/otrlogs2/classicsh_sw.log.pdf |website=Old-Time Radio |title=The Classic Adventures of Sherlock Holmes: Broadcast Log |last=Wright |first=Stewart |date=30 April 2019 |access-date=10 June 2020}}

In 2023, the podcast Sherlock&Co adapted the story in a thwo-episodes adventure called "The Problem of Thor Bridge", starring Paul Waggot as Watson and Harry Attwell as Sherlock.

The Problem of Three-Toll Bridge by fantasy author Josh Reynolds, featuring sage-detective Zavant Konniger and his halfling manservant Vido, was published 2012 in issue 25 of Warhammer Fantasy magazine Hammer and Bolter.{{cite web |url=https://www.blacklibrary.com/all-products/hammer-and-bolter-issue-25.html |title=Hammer and Bolter: Issue 25 |author= |date=2012 |website=Black Library |publisher=Games Workshop |access-date=2022-02-03}}

{{Reflist}}

• {{cite book |title=A Brief History of Sherlock Holmes |last=Cawthorne |first=Nigel |author-link=Nigel Cawthorne |publisher=Running Press |year=2011 |isbn=978-0762444083}}
• {{cite book |last=Dickerson |first=Ian |author-link=Ian Dickerson |title=Sherlock Holmes and His Adventures on American Radio |publisher=BearManor Media |year=2019 |isbn=978-1629335087}}
• {{cite book |last=Smith |first=Daniel |title=The Sherlock Holmes Companion: An Elementary Guide |publisher=Aurum Press |year=2014 |edition=Updated |orig-year=2009 |isbn=978-1-78131-404-3}}

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Category:Sherlock Holmes short stories by Arthur Conan Doyle

Category:1922 short stories

Category:Works originally published in The Strand Magazine

Category:Locked-room mysteries