Arthur Conan Doyle
ARTHUR CONAN DOYLE (1859-1930)
BIOGRAPHY
Although best known as the creator of Sherlock Holmes, Arthur Conan Doyle's work includes science fiction, historical romance and books on warfare and spiritualism. Born in Edinburgh, he qualified as a doctor and practised in Southsea before turning to writing as a means of supplementing his income. The first Sherlock Homes novel appeared in 1887 and the fictional detective soon brought fame and fortune - though Doyle always maintained his historical romances held more worth. His personal interests were far ranging: he was a strong advocate of a tunnel between England and France, of inflatable life jackets and, in one unfortunate incident, of a (faked) photograph of fairies. But it was for a paper justifying Britain's involvement in the Boer War - where he had served as a physician - that he received his knighthood. Influenced by Edgar Allan Poe, Doyle's work often demonstrates a similar contrasting of the rational and the imaginative.
STORIES
Cover Image
Holmes investigates when the Californian bride-to-be of Lord St. Simon goes missing just before the wedding.
- Length: 23 pages
- Age Rating: PG
- Genre: Crime
4 Stars
Cover Image
Holmes helps a banker from whom some expensive gems, taken as security on a loan to an important client, have been stolen.
- Length: 27 pages
- Age Rating: PG
- Genre: Crime
5 Stars
Cover Image
A young lady asks Holmes' advice as to whether she should accept an excellent appointment as a governess even though it comes with an unusual condition attached.
- Length: 27 pages
- Age Rating: PG
- Genre: Crime
5 Stars
Cover Image
A Christmas mystery for detective Sherlock Holmes beginning with a lost hat and an abandoned goose.
- Length: 23 pages
- Age Rating: PG
- Genre: Crime
4 Stars
Cover Image
Holmes investigates the case of a fiancee who disappeared on the day of the wedding.
- Length: 19 pages
- Age Rating: PG
- Genre: Crime
5 Stars
Cover Image
Mystery in which a pawnbroker is offered an apparently unmissable job opportunity - only red-heads need apply.
- Length: 26 pages
- Age Rating: PG
- Genre: Crime
5 Stars
Cover Image
When a popular local doctor is murdered, the angry brother of his ex-fiance seems the obvious suspect - until the doctor's uknown past begins to reveal itself.
- Length: 19 pages
- Age Rating: PG
- Genre: Crime
5 Stars
Cover Image
While in the service of a widower with a dark past, a young tutor begins to wonder about his master's regular visits to a room nobody else is allowed to enter.
- Length: 14 pages
- Age Rating: PG
- Genre: Fiction, Horror
5 Stars
Cover Image
An apparently impossible scenario involving the diappearance of three people from and the appearance of a totally unknown - dead - fourth on a moving train.
- Length: 17 pages
- Age Rating: PG
- Genre: Crime
5 Stars
Cover Image
A job advert with a bizarre set of requirements leads a young entomologist off on a mysterious adventure.
- Length: 18 pages
- Age Rating: PG
- Genre: Crime
5 Stars
Cover Image
The confession of a convicted killer sheds light on the disappearance of a mysterious Frenchman - along with the entire train he was travelling in.
- Length: 18 pages
- Age Rating: PG
- Genre: Crime
4 Stars
Cover Image
A scientific city-man encounters the legend of a terrifying monster when he retires to Derbyshire.
- Length: 18 pages
- Age Rating: PG
- Genre: Horror, Sci-Fi
5 Stars
Cover Image
A case which leaves a Lady of notoriously loose morals in a nunnery and her lover - a brilliant physician - in a vegetative state.
- Length: 12 pages
- Age Rating: PG
- Genre: Crime, Fiction, Horror
5 Stars
Cover Image
In this homage to Poe, two rival scholars are brought together when one discovers an important early Christian burial ground.
- Length: 15 pages
- Age Rating: PG
- Genre: Crime, Fiction, Horror
5 Stars
Cover Image
Spending a night in the library of an old friend and scholar of the black arts, the narrator becomes curious about the object in question.
- Length: 14 pages
- Age Rating: PG
- Genre: Horror
5 Stars