“In 1887, a young Arthur Conan Doyle published ‘A Study in Scarlet,’ thus creating an international icon in the quick-witted sleuth Sherlock Holmes. In this, the first Holmes mystery, the detective introduces himself to Dr. John H. Watson with the puzzling line ‘You have been in Afghanistan, I perceive.’ And so begins Watson’s, and the world’s, fascination with this enigmatic character.” Doyle presents two equally perplexing mysteries for Holmes to solve—one a murder that takes place in the shadowy outskirts of London, in a locked room where the haunting word Rache is written upon the wall, the other a kidnapping set in the American West. Quickly picking up the “scarlet thread of murder running through the colourless skein of life,” Holmes does not fail at finding the truth—and making literary history

The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes are overshadowed by the event with which they close—the meeting of the great detective and Moriarty, the Napoleon of Crime. Their struggle, seemingly to the death, was to leave many readers desolate at the loss of Holmes, but was also to lead to his immortality as a literary figure

Test your own powers of deduction alongside those of the most celebrated detective ever to walk the streets of London or grace the pages of a book. Sherlock Holmes brings his extraordinary insight and intriguing quirks to every case he is called upon to solve—sometimes without even leaving the comfort of his Baker Street apartment. In this collection of 23 ingeniously plotted stories, no case is too big, too small, or too bizarre for Holmes. Whether he is foiling the grand schemes of a would-be bank robber or uncovering family secrets kept hidden away for years, Sherlock Holmes at all times proves himself a formidable adversary. With his trusted and always-admiring friend, Dr. Watson, at his side, “the most perfect reasoning and observing machine the world has ever seen” uses his unique analytical gifts to confound every criminal and unravel every mystery

In one of his novels, author Doyle distressed readers by allowing both Sherlock Holmes and his adversary Professor Moriarty to die. Then in 1903, to please readers, he resuscitates the famous sleuth. The stories in this collection tell of his return

Investigating a crooked tabloid magnate, Sherlock Holmes is drawn across the continent Dr. Watson has never been much of an angler, and he is perplexed when Sherlock Holmes invites him on a Scottish fishing expedition. “Come if convenient,” reads the telegram. “If not, come anyway.” A few years after his near-death experience at the hands of Moriarty, the great detective is restless. If any man needs a vacation, it is Sherlock Holmes. But Watson knows better than to expect a peaceful fishing trip. As it happens, Holmes has dragged Watson to Scotland not for the fishing — but for a party. The celebration is hosted by John Moxton, an American muckraker who has recently expanded his tabloid empire across the pond. When his paper, the Clarion, turns out to be one step ahead of Holmes in investigating a baffling series of crimes, the detective suspects that Moxton isn’t just breaking the news — he’s making it