"As Doctor Watson writes in his 'Foreword': Holmes's cases overlapped one another considerably, often with the next beginning while the current was still in motion. Some moved linearly from start to finish without interruption, while other stretched, a piece here and a piece there, across weeks, months or even years and decades.... A few never reached any conclusion at all. ... Watson chose the stories in this collection to represent this tangled skein." -- Jacket back.