History Literature / TheCaseOfDeathAndHoney

"Death is the greatest crime of all". A dying Mycroft challenges his brother Sherlock to find a cure to death, to occupy his mind. He decides bees may have the answer, but not in Britain. Meanwhile, an old beekeeper in the Chinese hills named Gao ponders his legacy and approaching death, when a strange foreigner appears and wants to rent one of his hives.

"Death is the greatest crime of all." A dying Mycroft challenges his brother Sherlock to find a cure to death, to occupy his mind. He decides bees may have the answer, but not in Britain. Meanwhile, an old beekeeper in the Chinese hills named Gao ponders his legacy and approaching death, when a strange foreigner appears and wants to rent one of his hives.

''The Case of Death and Honey'' is a short story by Creator/NeilGaiman that features Sherlock Holmes.

* NiceToTheWaiter: Holmes makes sure that his housekeeper has plenty of normal honey after she accidentally takes an experimental jar, just chiding her. He also pays Gao well for renting the hives and arranging his meals.

* AndTheAdventureContinues: Holmes plans to visit Watson and give him some honey, so that they can keep solving mysteries together. Gao collects the last bit of slurry Sherlock left, which allows him to become a young man and continue caring for his bees.

* LivingForeverIsAwesome: Justified; Holmes took the case to honor his brother Mycroft and wanted a superior challenge to his intellect. He takes time to marvel at how his hands have grown young though, and notes that his small pot of youth-restoring honey is the most valuable object on the planet.

* NotSoDifferent: It is heavily suggested that Gao is of similar intelligence and observational acuity to Sherlock Holmes, but unlike Holmes simply lives a life in a place where such abilities are not really needed nor valued that much. Made abundantly clear at the end when Gao, learning that a younger man was reportedly seen leaving the hives that he rented to the elderly European and after spending a few minutes looking around the location, immediately realises that Holmes has discovered the secret of immortality and left some of the results behind for him.

* RightForTheWrongReasons: Holmes believes that the professor who inspired ''The Adventure of the Creeping Man'' to have been on the right track pursuing immortality, but he failed to process the poisons out of the floral source. Eventually Holmes strikes upon the idea of using bees to gather the nectar and pollen from the toxic flowers, then consuming the resulting honey to become young again.

* NotSoDifferent: It is heavily suggested that Gao is of similar intelligence and observational acuity to Sherlock Holmes, but simply lives a life in a place where, unlike Holmes, such abilities are not really needed nor valued that much. Made abundantly clear at the end when Gao, learning that a younger man was reportedly seen leaving the hives that he rented to the elderly European and after spending a few minutes looking around the location, immediately realises that Holmes has discovered the secret of immortality and left some of the results behind for him.

"Death is the greatest crime of all." A dying Mycroft challenges his brother Sherlock to find a cure to death, to occupy his mind. He decides bees may have the answer, but not in Britain. Meanwhile, an old beekeeper named Gao worries about his legacy, when a strange foreigner appears and wants to rent one of his hives.

* FountainOfYouth: The honey that Holmes develops ends up being this, turning him from an old man into a spirited youth. Even the slurry is potent so that Gao can pose as his son with little to no trouble after heating some of it. It's also implied that Holmes, Gao and soon Watson will be immortal.
* LivingForeverIsAwesome: Justified; Holmes took the case to honor his brother Mycroft and wanted a superior challenge to his intellect. He takes time to marvel at how his hands have grown young though, and notes that his honey is the most valuable thing on the planet.

* AndTheAdventureContinues: This happens for Gao and Mr. Holmes. Holmes plans to visit Watson and give him some honey, so that they can keep solving mysteries together. Gao collects the last bit of slurry Sherlock left, which allows him to become a young man and continue caring for his bees.

* AndTheAdventureContinues: This happens for Gao and Mr. Holmes. Holmes goes to Watson and plans to give him some honey, so that they can keep solving mysteries together. Gao has the last bit of slurry that turns him into a young man and decides to pose as his long-dead son.
* ChekhovsGunman: Dead gunman in this case; Gao thinks about the fact that his son died when he was only a few days old when lamenting that he has no one that can take care of his bees after he passes from this world. After he drinks the slurry, Gao realizes he can pose as his son with no one being the wiser.

* LivingForeverIsAwesome: Justified; Holmes took the case to honor his brother Mycroft and wanted to figure out the secret to avoiding death. He takes time to marvel at how his hands have grown young, though.
* NiceToTheWaiter: Holmes makes sure that his housekeeper has plenty of normal honey after she accidentally takes an experimental jar, just chiding her. He also pays Gao well for renting the hives and having meals.
* NoPlansNoPrototypeNoBackup: Again, justified; Holmes believes that if everyone has the secret to immortality then it would be too dangerous. He destroys his experimental garden and leaves just a bit of slurry for Gao in addition to payment. It is implied, however, that he takes his notes with home to replicate the experiment when necessary.

* RightForTheWrongReasons: Holmes believes that a killer using arsenic to find immortality had the right idea, but the wrong means of removing the poison.

* ChekhovsGunman: Dead gunman in this case; Gao thinks about the fact that his son died when he was only a few days old when lamenting that he has no one that can take care of his bees after he dies.

* ChekovsGunman: Dead gunman in this case; Gao thinks about the fact that his son died when he was only a few days old when lamenting that he has no one that can take care of his bees after he dies.

* NoPlansNoPrototypesNoBackup: Again, justified; Holmes believes that if everyone has the secret to immortality then it would be too dangerous. He destroys his experimental garden and leaves just a bit of slurry for Gao in addition to payment. It is implied, however, that he takes his notes with home to replicate the experiment when necessary.