They are tough going! I'm a bit of a sucker for audio books, especially the BBC dramatisations, and the Sherlock Holmes ones happen to be some of my favourites. They're very faithful to the stories, so if you have a really hard time with the book you could always give those a go. I sound like a right old geek now.
I think you're 6 hours behind me, if I have my time head on straight. I don't think it will be a problem, email can become our friend!
I'm happy to set it whenever, I will be guided by you on that one. As for the season end, I honestly can't see Moriarty backing down without some super reason, so I suppose John the hero would work best.