The Adventure of Charles Augustus Milverton by Arthur Conan Doyle

Holmes is hired to retrieve compromising letters from a notorious blackmailer who destroys reputations for profit. When peaceful efforts fail, Holmes and Watson break into Milverton’s house—only to witness the blackmailer’s dramatic assassination by another of his victims. The plot balances crime, ethics, and suspense with Holmes operating in moral gray areas. Milverton is portrayed as one of Holmes’s most loathsome adversaries. It’s a tense and morally daring tale of justice served outside the law.