The Adventure of the Two Women

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The Adventure of the Two Women is a Sherlock Holmes crime story by Adrian Conan Doyle. The story was published in the 1954 collection, The Exploits of Sherlock Holmes.

Holmes is called upon to save the widow of a distinguished family from shame. Her noble husband, Henry Gladsdale, the Duke of Carringford, served his country well prior to his death, but now Duchess Carringford and her betrothed daughter, Lady Mary Gladsdale, are faced with ruin. A blackmailer threatens to expose a prior marriage by Henry Gladsdale that would nullify his marriage to the current Duchess. The price for silence is Gladsdale's private papers, which undoubtedly contain much information valuable to foreign powers.

Holmes must fend off the threats of a thug, discover the identity of the blackmailer, and commit a crime himself before he resolves the extortion plot.