Sherlock Holmes Chapter One A Mother’s Love Walkthrough

A Mother’s Love is the overarching Main Case in Sherlock Holmes Chapter One that stretches from the start of the game to the end. This walkthrough will guide you through all objectives of the A Mother’s Love main quest, which is not played in one go but rather interrupted by all the other main cases.

Starting Borough: Grand Saray
Starting Location: Hotel Il Palazzo del Lusso
Quest Giver: Automatically started when the game begins
Requirement: None
Trophies: Once Upon a Time, A Mother’s Arms,  Curiouser and Curiouser & Closing a Chapter
Case Info: I arrived at Cordona, the island where I spent my childhood, accompanied by my only friend, Jon. It is late evening, but I have a room booked at the hotel ‘Il Palazzo del Lusso’ – I simply need to check in with the receptionist. It seems as if I must spend a night here before I can visit my mother’s grave.

Objectives:

• At the Hotel
• Case “Ghosts of the Past”
• At the Cemetery
• Start of the Open World
• Searching the Police Archive
• Finding Stonewood Manor
• Sherlock’s Room
• Case “A Gilded Cage”
• Violets Room
• Case “The Muse From Abroad”
• Cabinet of Curiosities
• Case “Sacrificial Lamb”
• The Garden (Finale & Point-of-no-Return)

Starting Location: A Mother’s Love

A Mother’s Love Case starts automatically after the initial cutscene.

At the Hotel

Arriving at Cordona, it is time for us to check in at our hotel. Speak to the receptionist and sign the book in front of him.

Afterward, we can try to enter our room 221, which will be to the right side and up the large staircase. Sadly, it cannot be opened, as it is still being cleaned. Late in the evening – what a lousy service!

Go back downstairs, talk to the barkeeper and interact with the food tray in front of him.

Then Jon points out a sign next to the stairs: a Medium is holding Seances in the Hotel. Sounds like just the thing we need. After interacting with the sign, Sherlock will have a conversation with an artist who approaches him.

After this, talk to Jon again, then grab the food tray from the bar. Head over to Jon who is sitting at the table to the right of the stairs.

There is a walking cane sitting on our table and Jon asks us to identify the owner. After the conversation, interact with the cane on the table and inspect the 3 clues on it (handgrip, gold crest, ebony).

Once you’ve inspected the cane, pick it up from the table, open the menu, go to casebook, pin “The Lost Cane” objective ( / while hovering over it). Pinning it is mandatory, only then can you talk about it with other guests.

Missable Trophy: While Jon asks us to find the owner on our own, ask the receptionist about its owner to get Poor Sportsmanship.

Talk to other guests until one of them gives you a clue about a retired Navy Officer that sat with the cane owners. Now the Navy Officer will spawn. Head outside and talk to the man closest to the gate on the left side. He’s wearing a dark suit and bowler hat. He tells us the cane owners are in the seance room.

Head to the Seance Room, accessed via the left side of the bar/catering area where we found the walking cane.

Case “Ghosts of the Past”

Upon entering the Seance Room, “A Mother’s Love” gets interrupted for another main case called Ghosts of the Past. To advance you must complete that quest, see link below.

» Sherlock Holmes Chapter One Ghosts of the Past Walkthrough

Ghosts of the Past will give the trophy Diamond in the Rough and has the first opportunity for The Walls Have Ears.

Upon finishing the case, you will go to the outer yard of the hotel. Then talk to the man next to the carriage to travel to the Cemetery.

At the Cemetery

Pin the objective “Remembering the Funeral” to the screen, otherwise you can’t see the white circles! Use Concentration Mode / to see what happened here. First view the white circle where Jon is standing, then the boy walking away on the left.

The third spot is just a bit further along the path, next to the small iron gate to the left. Go through this small iron gate to reach your mother’s grave.

At your mother’s grave, interact with the three clues shown below (engraving, pocket watch (must view initials inside it), burning candle).

After doing so, pin the new objective “Mysterious Visitor”.

Now you can enter concentration mode / and inspect the footprints in front of the grave. They will lead to a bike track and head around the left side. Stay in concentration mode and follow the tracks.

You can see the bike was parked next to a wall on the right side. Interact with the three clues on it (green oil paint, photo of crypts with old tree – must view front and back of photo, leather straps – only viewable in concentration mode, push left stick up to see it from a better angle).

Walk towards the end of the Cemetery with the Crypts and the large tree and you will see the artist painting an image. It turns out he’s Vogel, the guy who we met earlier in the hotel’s catering area. Talk to him, it doesn’t matter what dialogue you pick.

 

Start of the Open World

After talking to Vogel, Sherlock can now start to freely roam the island and take all the cases he can find.

Speaking to the artist also unlocks the three Archives we can consult for further info on certain pieces of intel. The Cordona Chronicle Newspaper, the Police Station and the City Hall will all be marked on your map now. Pin the objective “Vogel’s Story” which has a book icon next to it.

The correct archive for our quest is the Police Station. This is where you find the Police Station:

 

Upon entering, the next quest The Master of Disguise will start. You must do this quest first before you can advance with A Mother’s Love.

» Sherlock Holmes Chapter One The Master of Disguise Walkthrough

Searching the Police Archive

After completing “The Master of Disguise”, we can now search the archives for clues about Sherlock’s mother’s death. Select Violent Crimes, Grand Saray & Victims to learn about the case files.

Finding Stonewood Manor

After doing the basic police training trying to exit the station, we can now finally try to find the house we lived in. Stonewood Manor is located in Grand Saray, close to a bridge.

Upon arrival, go to the gazebo and inspect the wooden mannequin, it has 4 inspection points (handcuffs, face, sword, money bag).

Afterward, pin the “Remembering My Past” clue to your screen to be able to see the white rings in front of the manor entrance, indicating there is something you can see in Concentration mode .

After entering the Manor, interact with all objects inside (you can press / to highlight them), then pin “Arriving at Cordona” to your screen and remember the order of events from the day you moved in.

Sherlock’s Room

Completing the Imagination-Scene unlocks Sherlock’s Room and grants us the trophy Once Upon a Time.

Inside, you can interact with several pieces from his childhood. Eventually, you want to tend to the desk and interact with the clues there.

The doorknob-key you find under the piece of paper can be used on the cabinet next to the door, which holds two further clues. You must pin the “Wooden Handle” clue to use it.

Additionally, you can interact with the chest at the bed’s end to see two of his old toys, as well as the balloon on the ground.

Interacting with the balloon reminds Sherlock about a neighbor who was a friend of the family and might know more about what actually happened to his mother. He had a large version of this balloon flying over his property. In the mind palace menu, combine the clues “Missing Records” and “Friendly neighbour”, then track the new casebook objective “Looking for a Family Friend”. Leave the manor and turn right and you’ll see the gas air balloon in a matter of seconds.

Case “A Gilded Cage”

Upon arriving at the gas air balloon house, a new case “A Gilded Cage” starts that you must solve to advance.

» Sherlock Holmes Chapter One A Gilded Cage Walkthrough

Violets Room

Upon finishing the case “A Gilded Cage”, pin objective “Fragmented Memory”. Sherlock gains new fragmented memories we can piece together in Stonewood Manor. To start, go up the stairs and into the study.

 

Use concentration / on the white circle outline. Complete the short sequence of the childhood memory (at one point, you have to start going down the stairs and come back to the door) and you’ll net the A Mother’s Arms.

Head inside your mother’s room and start to interact with all the clues. Starting to the left of where you enter, check the painted picture as well as the medicine cabinet. In the corner, there are three drawings to be found.

The table in the middle contains two further clues (newspaper, note). Also, open up the briefcase and interact with everything inside.

Interacting with the bed, bathtub, window and the flowers will also bring up some past memories.

The little cabinet close to the bed contains a bottle as well as a letter in the drawer.

Now, you can also analyze the contents of the bottle from the casebook.

 

If you want to complete Jon’s challenge, talk to him in the corner, track objective “A Match Started Long Ago”, and use the Bishop on the chessboard.

Pin the “Morning Mania” objective to find a total of three spots you can interact with in concentration mode / (two in middle of room, 1 in corner near bathtub).

Now, we should have everything in place to recreate the events of the day of her death. These are the correct placements of the imagination-scene:

After a brief cutscene, Sherlock hears that someone entered the Manor. Time to head down the stairs.

The sailor can be analyzed – these are the clues:

The correct character portrait is “Artist disguised as a sailor”.

He was sent by Verner Vogel, who invites us to visit his gallery in Old City. Going there starts the next main case.

 

Case “The Muse From Abroad”

Upon arriving at the art gallery, The Muse From Abroad main case starts. It’s mandatory to complete it before you can continue with the story.

» Sherlock Holmes Chapter One The Muse From Abroad Walkthrough

Cabinet of Curiosities

After completing “The Muse From Abroad” and returning to Stonewood Manor, you’ll encounter an agent of your brother Mycroft, who wants to inform about a new case.

For the missable trophy Not Now, say “I’m busy”. This won’t have any consequences, as you can talk to him again immediately and still take the case “Love, Death, and Cordona“.

In front of the house we’ll see a large box – the gift sent by Verner Vogel. Open it and interact with the Skeleton-Statue to trigger a flashback and a follow-up cutscene.

Head inside and pin the “Fragmented Memory” to your screen to reveal some spots in the downstairs lobby you can interact with while in concentration mode. They’re all in the middle of the lobby, around the skeleton-statue.

This will open up the Cabinet of Curiosities to the right of the lobby and unlock Curiouser and Curiouser.

With the final room of the Manor accessible, we can now see what’s inside. To the sides of the door are two animal heads you can check out.

Continuing counter-clockwise, there is a knights armor in the corner.

The boxes on the desk contain a total of four clues we need to inspect.

Continuing, interact with the helmet/skull as well as the sarcophagus.

Five further clues to check out are the skeleton in the glass coffin, the shield on the back wall as well as three items on the shelf in the middle of the room (skull, alligator mask, photo).

The desk holds five pieces of intel. Four are on the top and the locked drawer is the fifth.

A blanket in the corner can be interacted with in concentration-mode.

Finally, two last things can be checked out on the shelf in the middle of the room.

Now, pin Jon’s Challenge “The Master of Unlocking” to the screen and check out the desk again in concentration mode. We have to follow the tracks upstairs, to the fireplace next to Violet’s room.

Interact with the fireplace and pick up the key, which we can use on the drawer downstairs. Inside the drawer are three further items we can inspect.

Now, we can check out three spots in the room in concentration mode, while having “Accident in the Cabinet of Curiosities” pinned to the screen.

This will enable us to enter the Imagination Sequence of what had happened here between Mycroft and Richter, by interacting with the white orb at the door. See the solution below.

Completing this scene, we can now take on the final main case. Someone was in the house and had delivered something. Inspect the parcel next to the door leading outside.

Case “Sacrificial Lamb”

» Sherlock Holmes Chapter One Sacrificial Lamb Walkthrough

The Garden

Point of No Return. Once you proceed into the Garden, the game will conclude and you can’t free-roam afterwards. Make a manual savegame before you proceed.

Also: Spoilers ahead.

Upon retrieving the final clue / fragmented memory, pin it to the screen and speak to Jon inside Stonewood Manor, at the door to the back garden. Confirm that you are ready “I have to finish this”.

Head towards the small pond and turn right. Upon approaching the vision of your mother, she will vanish.

Where she disappeared, interact with the Teacup on the Tray and collect the small bottle in the flashback-scene, on the table near young Jon.

Now, walk towards the Gazebo.

Interact with the book and both of the pages, especially the symbol.

In the next flashback, interact with the artifact on the desk to your left and proceed to the corner; a scene we’ve recreated before.

Now, head back to the door and in the flashback-scene you’ll show the garden to your mother.

Eventually, this will trigger a decisive scene, after which you are presented a total of four possible explanations of what has happened here.

Choosing any of the above will unlock the last cutscenes and reward you with Closing a Chapter. There is no “right” or “wrong” choice here, the ending is open for interpretation and you get the trophy regardless of your choice.

This finishes the story in Sherlock Holmes Chapter One. You will be returned to the Main Menu afterward. From there you may load your last manual save before the Point of No Return to continue free-roaming and doing other side tasks and collectibles.

For a summary of all Cases and Side Cases, view the full Sherlock Holmes Chapter One Walkthrough.