Chapter Summaries

After dying in a plane crash, the narrator woke up in London and found a comic forum on his phone depicting his imminent death in an explosion and Sherlock inspecting his corpse and phone. He narrowly survived the blast, but Sherlock confronted him about predicting it and suspected him of being connected to the bombing.

• The narrator woke up on a London street, recovered his phone from a homeless man, and discovered that his accounts and personal data had survived his death.
• The narrator opened a Sherlock comic forum and saw a motion comic depict a passerby dressed like him dying in a shop explosion, followed by Sherlock examining his body and phone.
• The narrator recognized that the comic's street matched his surroundings and jumped aside just before the shop exploded, surviving with minor injuries.
• Sherlock showed the narrator a video of his suspiciously timed escape and asked how he had known the explosion was coming.
• The narrator claimed metaphysics had let him predict the future, then argued that Sherlock would know he was not a suspect if he were truly Holmes.
• Sherlock inferred that the narrator had only recently arrived in London and said he was interested in examining the narrator's brain, alarming him.

After Inspector Lestrade released Lanning He without charge, she discovered that her rented address and luggage were gone and struggled to find somewhere to stay. She rented a small room from Mrs. Hudson at 221B Baker Street, then accepted a ride from Mycroft Holmes and immediately remembered not to get into strangers’ cars.

• Inspector Lestrade questioned Lanning He about the explosion, verified her identity and recent arrival, and released her without charge.
• Lanning learned that her supposed rental address was not a residence and that her luggage was missing, leaving her with only five hundred pounds and nowhere to stay.
• Lanning read the comic and its forum, then decided to seek affordable lodging at 221B Baker Street.
• Mrs. Hudson offered Lanning a small study converted into a bedroom for a thousand pounds a month and agreed to accept one week’s rent first.
• Mycroft Holmes invited Lanning into his car as she left 221B Baker Street, and she remembered her mother’s warning after getting inside.

Mycroft questioned Lanny about his knowledge of Sherlock and tested whether he would betray him, then let him go without offering money. Lanny met Sherlock outside and spotted a book on cranial surgery in his bag, leaving him alarmed about Sherlock’s interest in his brain.

• Mycroft confronted Lanny about predicting the explosion, finding Baker Street, and knowing his identity and intentions, while Lanny claimed he had divined them.
• Lanny challenged Mycroft to use truth serum or let him jump from the speeding car, and Mycroft said he had only been joking and wanted to work with him in the future.
• Mycroft revealed that Sherlock had asked him to investigate Lanny, then tested whether Lanny would watch Sherlock and betray his whereabouts for money; Lanny refused.
• Mycroft dropped Lanny off, and Lanny complained about him after carefully closing the Maserati door.
• Sherlock appeared carrying books, and Lanny saw that the visible title was “Rhoton's Cranial Anatomy and Surgical Approaches.”

The narrator returned to 221B Baker Street and met John Watson, who was looking for a room to rent. Sherlock invited them upstairs to review a detailed roommate agreement, leaving the narrator amused by its thorough provisions, including what to do if a roommate died.

• The narrator read forum replies about how to stop Sherlock from dissecting a living person and decided to take things one step at a time.
• The narrator spotted John Watson looking for 221B Baker Street and offered to show him the available room.
• The narrator and Watson discovered they were both University of London alumni and talked about their habits as prospective roommates.
• Sherlock interrupted their conversation and invited them upstairs to review a roommate agreement.
• The narrator read the agreement's provisions, including a clause allowing a roommate to handle arrangements if the other died without reachable relatives.

Lanny tried to avoid signing Sherlock’s roommate agreement, but Inspector Lestrade arrived with news of a grisly murder case and Sherlock agreed to investigate. The three roommates left for the crime scene, where Sherlock eagerly announced that the game was on.

• Lanny stalled over signing the roommate agreement by claiming his English was not good enough to understand it.
• Sherlock offered to explain the agreement and British law, but Inspector Lestrade arrived before Lanny had decided what to do.
• Lestrade described an explosion at a relief station where firefighters had found nine human legs in barrels, indicating at least five murders.
• Sherlock initially refused to help, but Lanny asked to see the scene and Sherlock decided to join them.
• Sherlock called the case a rare and interesting serial murder investigation, then set off with Lanny and Watson.

Sherlock, Watson, and Lanny arrived at the relief station to investigate an explosion and murder, where Sherlock exposed Sergeant Donovan’s carelessness by predicting her car would catch fire. Inspector Lestrade revealed that a skeleton had been dug up in the courtyard, and Sherlock postponed questioning how Lanny knew Watson’s name until after the investigation.

• Sherlock, Watson, and Lanny arrived at the cordoned-off relief station, where Sergeant Donovan tried to turn them away.
• Sherlock claimed Lanny could foresee the future, then accepted Lanny’s explanation that his earlier knowledge came from plausible guesses.
• Sherlock deduced that Donovan’s car was on fire because a smoldering cigarette and ruptured perfume bottle had ignited it, and an officer confirmed the fire.
• Lestrade reported that a skeleton had been dug up in the courtyard, and Sherlock assigned himself to inspect the building first.
• Lanny identified Watson to Lestrade, surprising Watson and Sherlock, who said they would discuss the matter after solving the case.

Lanny tried to secure Watson’s protection while helping Lestrade and Sherlock investigate the bodies at the ruined relief station. After Lanny analyzed the victims and killers, Watson mistook Lanny’s plea to keep Sherlock away from their body for concern about Sherlock’s feelings.

• Lanny decided to win Watson’s trust, help Watson and Sherlock become close, and move out of the hotel as soon as possible.
• Lestrade showed Watson and Lanny the skeleton identified as Ryan Trevelyan, who had disappeared five years earlier.
• Lanny explained that the killers likely worked in a group and had connections to the victims, and Sherlock announced that he had found more clues and wanted to investigate further.
• Lanny argued that the case was not the work of the Mafia and outlined why the killers were likely inexperienced accomplices led by someone with deep prejudice against men.
• Watson promised to protect Lanny, and Lanny asked him to keep Sherlock from seeing or touching Lanny’s body if Lanny died; Watson thought Lanny was worried about upsetting Sherlock.

Lanny and Watson searched near the River Thames for suspicious people, then pursued a supposed thief into narrow alleys. Lanny realized the thief and the two men chasing them had lured them into a trap, and he pulled Watson toward him.

• Lanny warned Watson to be careful around Sherlock, while Donovan called Sherlock a lunatic and Watson led Lanny away.
• Watson explained that Sherlock had sent them to look for a criminal who might be watching the police investigation.
• Lanny and Watson found no suspicious people as they walked back along the riverbank toward the meeting point.
• A woman cried out that a thief had stolen her girlfriend's wallet, and Watson chased the fleeing figure with Lanny following.
• The thief led Watson and Lanny through narrow alleys, while the two supposed victims followed behind them.
• Lanny realized the three people had lured them into a trap and grabbed Watson's arm to pull him close.

Lanny and Watson were ambushed by three criminals while chasing a thief, and Lanny was stabbed and swept into a drainage channel as they tried to escape. Sherlock appeared on the opposite bank but refused to help, leaving Lanny underwater and Watson pinned down.

• Lanny realized the two young men following them were criminals and tried to send Watson to fetch the police, but the men threatened them with a dagger and the thief returned to block their escape.
• The thief attacked Watson, and Lanny tackled him, getting stabbed in the hand before Watson pulled him up and ran with him through the rain.
• Watson refused to abandon Lanny, and they fled together through the alleys as their three pursuers chased them.
• At a broad drainage channel, one criminal shoved Lanny into the rushing water while the others pinned Watson down.
• Sherlock appeared on the opposite bank, but when Watson called for him to save Lanny, Sherlock coldly said it was not the time to waste effort on that.

After waking in the hospital, Lanny learned that Sherlock had rescued him and paid his medical bill after the attack by three armed criminals. Sherlock accepted Lanny’s offer to repay him, leaving Lanny worried that he might be unable to move out of 221B Baker Street.

• Lanny woke in the hospital, ate food Watson brought him, and asked how Watson had escaped the three thugs.
• Watson explained that Sherlock had anticipated the criminals’ attack and led the police in capturing all three men.
• Lanny questioned whether the case was truly solved, then decided to leave further investigation to the police, Sherlock, and Watson.
• Watson told Lanny to remain in the hospital for observation and reassured him that the medical expenses had been paid.
• Sherlock revealed that he had paid the 2,118-pound bill and accepted Lanny’s offer to repay him, making Lanny fear he could not leave 221B Baker Street.

After giving a statement at Scotland Yard, Lanny received a private note from Sherlock for Lestrade and was offered a five-hundred-pound reward to find a missing inheritance. Lanny was interested in the case but hesitated when Lestrade suggested Sherlock had recommended it.

• Lanny reflected on owing Sherlock money and favors while considering how dangerous Sherlock and his Holmes siblings could be.
• Lanny went to Scotland Yard alone to give a statement and identify the three suspects, while Officer Donovan helped keep them in line.
• Sherlock asked Lanny to deliver a short note to Lestrade and questioned whether Lanny knew the killer; Lanny said he was unsure.
• Lanny delivered Sherlock's note to Lestrade over coffee, and Lestrade offered him a case involving Rhodes's missing inheritance and a five-hundred-pound reward.
• Lanny said he wanted the reward but hesitated when he suspected Sherlock had recommended the case.

Lanny helped Inspector Lestrade question three criminals, and their answers linked them to Rhodes’s case and a possible murder attempt. As Lestrade hurried off to meet Rhodes, Mycroft Holmes had Lanny dragged into a car.

• Lanny offered to help Lestrade investigate the lost-property case without following Sherlock Holmes’s instructions.
• Detective Qiaosen bumped into Lanny at the police station, and Lestrade apologized for the incident.
• Lanny advised Lestrade to question the three criminals indirectly by placing Rhodes’s file in view and asking about other details first.
• The three criminals confessed to crimes connected to Rhodes and gave accounts of the necklace, which they said had been sold on the black market.
• Lestrade thanked Lanny and left to meet Rhodes, while Mycroft Holmes had Lanny pulled into his car.

Mycroft questioned He Xue about Sherlock’s unusual interest in him, then drove him back to Baker Street after warning him not to take advantage of Sherlock. He Xue returned to find Sherlock reading, but their conversation was interrupted by Lestrade arriving with news about Rhodes.

• Mycroft questioned He Xue about Sherlock’s attention and learned that He Xue considered Sherlock a good person.
• Mycroft claimed Watson was spying on Sherlock for him, but He Xue doubted the claim and guessed Mycroft had supplied the money Sherlock lent him.
• Mycroft told He Xue not to bully Sherlock and suggested he use an English name, while He Xue explained that Lanny was only a convenient alias.
• He Xue returned to Baker Street and told Sherlock what Mycroft had said, but the doorbell interrupted Sherlock before he could pronounce He Xue’s name.
• Lestrade arrived and told Sherlock and He Xue that Rhodes’s body had been found at home.

At Audley Court, Sherlock linked Rhodes’s murder to the relief station serial killings and argued that the killer was a police officer, while Lanny helped explain the clues and calm the officers. As the surveillance footage was about to be played, Sherlock called Lanny by a name she could not understand, leaving her eager to learn what he had said.

• Lestrade took Sherlock and Lanny to Rhodes’s murder scene, where Sherlock identified the pattern of the stabbing and found a hidden camera.
• Sherlock presented his theory that a police officer had used his authority to conceal involvement in the serial murders, and Lanny helped defuse the officers’ anger and explain the suspect’s motives.
• An officer named Qiaosen challenged Sherlock to play the footage, and Lanny grew uneasy as she watched the officers’ reactions.
• Sherlock called Lanny by a Chinese name she could not understand, then told her to play the surveillance video.

Sherlock exposed Qiaosen as the killer by using surveillance footage, a stolen driver’s license, and Rhodes’s testimony. Lanny returned to 221B with Sherlock, where she learned her hospital envelope contained brain MRI results and declined to look at them with him.

• Lanny asked Sherlock whether he had called her by her Chinese name, but he ignored the question and asked the officers to identify who had been away between three and four.
• Sherlock played the surveillance footage, which showed the killing but concealed the attacker’s identity, then challenged Qiaosen about his whereabouts and whether he could drive.
• Sherlock revealed Qiaosen’s driver’s license and Rhodes appeared as a witness, identifying Qiaosen as the killer and describing the evidence found at the killer’s safe house.
• Rhodes thanked Sherlock and returned the five pounds he had taken from Lanny, who kept the banknote as a keepsake.
• Mrs. Hudson told Lanny that mail had arrived from the hospital, and Sherlock offered to show her the brain MRI results; Lanny refused.

After the Workhouse case was solved, Lanny shared a quiet, unexpectedly harmonious dinner with Sherlock and Watson before reading a new comic update that revealed Louis and Moran had planned the explosion. The comic showed an unknown black-haired man escaping the blast, and Lanny realized its readers had mistaken him for someone who had spotted the plot.

• Lanny told Watson that the Workhouse case was solved, and Sherlock said he was pleased that things had gone as he wanted.
• Watson praised Lanny for noticing when people were happy, and the three shared a brief moment of laughter with Mrs. Hudson at dinner.
• Late at night, Lanny opened the updated comic and saw Louis and Moran discussing their plan to blow up the Workhouse.
• The comic showed a black-haired passerby avoiding the explosion, prompting readers to speculate that he had discovered Louis and Moran.
• Lanny recognized the passerby as himself and privately insisted that he had only been identifying landmarks, not noticing the plot.

The narrator researched Moriarty and his group after learning they had become interested in him, but the forum offered no certainty about whether they would harm him. He grew more uneasy while reading, mistook his reflection for someone watching him outside the window, and then continued with the manga.

• The narrator decided to investigate Moriarty's character before reading more of the manga.
• He posted online asking whether the main characters of "Moriarty the Patriot" were good or bad, and commenters described them as morally complicated figures who acted against villains.
• Forum users discussed how Moriarty's group fit into the modern setting and speculated about the narrator, a student visiting Britain, and his apparent influence at Scotland Yard.
• The narrator wondered if Moriarty and his associates were watching nearby, then mistook his reflection in the window for a person staring inside.
• He calmed himself and worked up the courage to continue reading the manga.

After reading the comic’s account of the relief station bombing and his escape with Watson, Lanny learned how Sherlock had interpreted his actions and saw that Watson trusted him. That night, Lanny overheard Sherlock struggling to pronounce his Chinese name and decided to use his English name, Lanny, while in London.

• Sherlock questioned Lanny about how he had escaped the relief station explosion, and Lanny answered by asking whether Sherlock knew about metaphysics.
• The comic showed that Sherlock had noticed Rhodes remained in London and that he later visited Rhodes to investigate his possible connection to the bombing; police released Lanny after finding no evidence against him.
• Lanny recalled how he had advised Watson to run perpendicular to their original route, helping them increase their distance from the criminals pursuing them.
• Lanny reread the comic and saw that Watson had been impressed by their escape, while readers speculated about Lanny’s connection to Moriarty.
• Lanny overheard Sherlock practicing the pronunciation of his Chinese name as “Drink blood” and decided to use his English name the next morning.
• Sherlock accepted Lanny’s choice without comment and asked him to bring a cup of black coffee.

Lanny attended orientation day at the University of London, collected her student ID, and enjoyed the campus stalls and free food before Sherlock called. Their conversation ended with Sherlock asking when she would graduate.

• Lanny decided to attend University of London orientation and discussed her plans with Watson, who offered to buy her Lotus Biscoff biscuits.
• Watson reminded Lanny not to push herself too hard, and she told him she had a faculty gathering that evening.
• Lanny attended orientation, collected her student ID, and followed a volunteer to the stalls, where she gathered free items and ate a sandwich.
• Sherlock called Lanny and criticized her for missing their corpse-swabbing experiment, but she said Molly knew where she had left the first batch of data.
• Sherlock changed the subject and asked Lanny when she would graduate.

Lanny attended a university mathematics reception and won a number puzzle against William, whom he befriended. At his first class, Lanny discovered that William was Professor Moriarty, his new professor for fundamental theory of computational mathematics.

• Sherlock criticized the university’s mathematics department and questioned Lanny about his studies, while Lanny said he hoped to find an excellent adviser.
• Lanny went to a reception where Professor Sullivan Eldersh presented his research and James O’Connor organized a mathematics competition.
• Lanny beat William at Lucky 999, then played more puzzles with him and exchanged phone numbers.
• Lanny met William again at his first class and learned that he was the new Professor Moriarty, teaching fundamental theory of computational mathematics.