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{{Use dmy dates|date=November 2016}}
{{Use British English|date=November 2016}}

{{Infobox short story <!--See [[Wikipedia:WikiProject Novels]]-->
| name              = The Problem of Thor Bridge
| image             = The Problem of Thor Bridge 07.jpg
| caption           = 1922 illustration by [[Alfred Gilbert]] in ''[[The Strand Magazine]]''
| title_orig        = 
| translator        = 
| author            = [[Arthur Conan Doyle]]
| country           = 
| language          = 
| series            = ''[[The Casebook of Sherlock Holmes]]''
| genre             = 
| published_in      = 
| publication_type  =
| publisher         = 
| media_type        = 
| pub_date          = February–March 1922
| english_pub_date  = 
| preceded_by       = [[The Adventure of the Mazarin Stone|The Mazarin Stone]]
| followed_by       = [[The Adventure of the Creeping Man|The Creeping Man]]
}}

"'''The Problem of Thor Bridge'''" is a [[Sherlock Holmes]] short story by [[Arthur Conan Doyle]] collected in ''[[The Case-Book of Sherlock Holmes]]'' (1927). It was first published in 1922 in ''[[The Strand Magazine]]'' (UK) and ''[[Hearst's International]]'' (US).

==Plot==
[[File:The Problem of Thor Bridge by G. Patrick Nelson 3.jpg|thumb|upright|1922 illustration by G. Patrick Nelson in ''[[Hearst's International]]'']]
Neil Gibson, the Gold King and former [[United States Senate|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 [[Dr. Watson|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.

==Commentary==
The story is notable within the Sherlock Holmes canon for the initial reference to a tin dispatchbox, located within the vaults of the [[Cox & Kings|Cox and Co.]] Bank at Charing Cross in London, where [[Dr. Watson]] kept the papers concerning some of Holmes' unsolved or unfinished cases.<ref>{{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 International Publishing Group|Continuum]]|year=1999|page=[https://archive.org/details/bedsidebathtubar00dick_0/page/185 185]|ISBN=0-8264-1116-9}}</ref>  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".<ref name="bunson">{{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}}</ref> The unknown fate of Phillimore has been a subject for many subsequent stories including: ''The Disappearance of Mr. James Phillimore'' by [[Ellery Queen]];<ref>{{Cite book |last=Nevins |first=Francis M. |title=Ellery Queen: The Art of Detection |publisher=Perfect Crime Books |year=2013 |isbn=9781935797470}}</ref> ''[[The Adventure of the Highgate Miracle]]'' by [[Adrian Conan Doyle]] and [[John Dickson Carr]];<ref name="bunson"/> ''The Enigma of the Warwickshire Vortex'' by [[F. Gwynplaine MacIntyre]];<ref>{{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}}</ref> ''The Problem of the Sore Bridge'' by [[Philip J. Farmer]];<ref name="bunson"/> one episode of the Italian comic book series ''Storie di Altrove'' (a [[Spin-off (media)|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'';<ref>{{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}}</ref> 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''.

==Publication history==
"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 [[Alfred Gilbert|A. Gilbert]] in the ''Strand'',{{sfn|Cawthorne|2011|p=160}} and with six illustrations by G. Patrick Nelson in ''Hearst's International''.<ref>{{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}}</ref> 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}}

==Adaptations==
===Film and television===
"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 (Stoll film series)|Sherlock Holmes film series]] by [[Stoll Pictures]]. It starred [[Eille Norwood]] as Sherlock Holmes and [[Hubert Willis]] as Dr. Watson.<ref>{{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 }}</ref>

The story was adapted for the Sherlock Holmes [[Sherlock Holmes (1965 TV series)|1968 BBC series]] with [[Peter Cushing]],<ref>{{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}}</ref> but the episode is now lost.<ref>{{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}}</ref>

The story was also dramatised in 1991 in Granada TV's series ''[[Sherlock Holmes (1984 TV series)|Sherlock Holmes]]'' starring [[Jeremy Brett]] with [[Daniel Massey (actor)|Daniel Massey]] as Neil Gibson, [[Celia Gregory]] as Maria Gibson, and [[Catherine Russell (British actress)|Catherine Russell]] as Grace Dunbar.<ref>{{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}}</ref>

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 (TV series)|Elementary]]'', Season 1, Episode 9 (2012), has the same motive as Mrs Gibson and a similar framing method.<ref name="ihear">{{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}}</ref> 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.<ref name="ihear"/>

===Radio and audio dramas===
"The Problem of Thor Bridge" was adapted by [[Edith Meiser]] as an episode of the American radio series ''[[The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes (radio series)|The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes]]''. The episode aired on 16 March 1931, with [[Richard Gordon (actor)|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 [[Sherlock Holmes (1952 radio series)|1952–1969 radio series]] starring [[Carleton Hobbs]] as Holmes and [[Norman Shelley]] as Watson. It was dramatised by [[Michael Hardwick]]. [[Robert Ayres (actor)|Robert Ayres]] played J. Neil Gibson.<ref>{{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 }}</ref>

"The Problem of Thor Bridge" was dramatised for [[BBC Radio 4]] in 1994 by [[Bert Coules]] as part of the [[Sherlock Holmes (1989 radio series)|1989–1998 radio series]] starring [[Clive Merrison]] as Holmes and [[Michael Williams (actor)|Michael Williams]] as Watson, featuring [[William Hootkins]] as J. Neil Gibson.<ref>{{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}}</ref>

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.<ref>{{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}}</ref>

In 2023, the podcast [[Sherlock & Co.|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.

===Literature===
''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 (setting)|Warhammer Fantasy]] magazine ''Hammer and Bolter''.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.blacklibrary.com/all-products/hammer-and-bolter-issue-25.html |title=Hammer and Bolter: Issue 25 |author=<!--Not stated--> |date=2012 |website=Black Library |publisher=Games Workshop |access-date=2022-02-03}}</ref>

==References==
{{Reflist}}

==Bibliography==
* {{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}}

==External links==
*{{wikisource-inline|The Problem of Thor Bridge|single=true}}
*{{Commons category-inline}}
*{{StandardEbooks|Standard Ebooks URL=https://standardebooks.org/ebooks/arthur-conan-doyle/the-casebook-of-sherlock-holmes|Display Name=''The Casebook of Sherlock Holmes'', including ''{{PAGENAMEBASE}}''|noitalics=true}}

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{{DEFAULTSORT:Problem of Thor Bridge}}
[[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]]