ARTHUR CONAN DOYLE (1859-1930)
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.
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
A Christmas mystery for detective Sherlock Holmes beginning with a lost hat and an abandoned goose.
- Length: 23 pages
- Age Rating: PG
- Genre: Crime
Up-and-coming detective Stanley Hopkins consults Holmes about the apparently motiveless murder of the secretary of an old professor.
- Length: 24 pages
- Age Rating: PG
- Genre: Crime
Holmes is called in to investigate the murder of Sir Eustace Brackenstall, apparently during a burglary.
- Length: 25 pages
- Age Rating: PG
- Genre: Crime
Holmes comes to the aid of the King of Bohemia, a case which brings him into contact with the adventuress Irene Adler.
- Length: 25 pages
- Age Rating: PG
- Genre: Crime
When Mr. Charles McCarthy is shot in a wood near Boscombe Pool, all (circumstantial) evidence appears to point at his son. But Holmes has doubts.
- Length: 25 pages
- Age Rating: PG
- Genre: Crime
Holmes goes in search of a missing man, last seen, by his wife, looking agitated in the second floor window above a seedy opium den.
- Length: 26 pages
- Age Rating: PG
- Genre: Crime
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
Just as he is about to be arrested for the murder of a client, a young lawyer pays a visit on Holmes and begs him to help prove his innocence.
- Length: 27 pages
- Age Rating: PG
- Genre: Crime
A man seeks Holmes' advice after his wife becomes terrified at the appearance of a series of drawings of dancing men.
- Length: 27 pages
- Age Rating: PG
- Genre: Crime
When the favorite for the Wessex Cup disappears and his trainer murdered, Holmes travels to Dartmoor to investigate.
- Length: 27 pages
- Age Rating: PG
- Genre: Crime
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
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
The Prime Minister asks Holmes to investigate the theft of a letter of exceptional diplomatic importance.
- Length: 28 pages
- Age Rating: PG
- Genre: Crime
A woman dies at night in a locked room, crying out in pain: 'It was the band! The speckled band!'. Holmes investigates.
- Length: 28 pages
- Age Rating: PG
- Genre: Crime