Lord Lister No. 0305: De schijndooden

In a bustling London ward, a handsome yet blood‑stained stranger lies unconscious, his aristocratic features hinting at a privileged past now marred by violence. The only clues to his identity are a silk pocket‑handkerchief with the initials B/S, a silver cigarette case and a well‑equipped pocket tool, all tucked within fine linen that offers no answers. A compassionate young nurse volunteers to tend him, but even she knows nothing of his name or the purpose that brought him to the city’s Sloane Street Hospital.

The night before the story truly begins, two men slipped into the ward after hours, demanding to speak with the wounded man who seemed feverishly awaiting a response. A detective, overhearing their frantic call, intervenes, trying to keep the visitors from leaving long enough to make an arrest. When the hospital director later learns that the police have no record of the supposed arrest, the puzzle deepens, suggesting a hidden conspiracy that will draw the wounded stranger’s past into the present.