Victor Trevor, an old friend of Holmes's calls him to Trincomalee, Ceylon, to investigate the vanishing of the Atkinson brothers, whose disappearance was as sudden as it was mysterious. For sixth months the people of Trincomalee have remained baffled by their departure, particularly because the brothers did not seem to have an enemy in the world. Holmes rushes to the island to help Trevor decipher just how these two men simply vanished.
Eric Brown is in the GUINNESS BOOK OF RECORDS for having flown more aircraft types (487) than any other pilot in history. His record is unlikely ever to be broken. Captain Brown CBE, DSC, AFC, KCVSA, RN, became a test pilot during the Second World War and commanded the RAE Aerodynamics Flight at Farnborough. He played a key role in the design of an entire generation of aircraft. No other man could have claimed to have interrogated several senior Nazis, flown their jet aircraft or tested so many experimental machines. The Royal Navy's most decorated pilot, Captain Eric Brown died in 2016 at the age of 97.