Book description
WITH AN INTRODUCTION BY MARK BILLINGHAM
When Dr Watson ends up renting rooms in Baker Street with the
eccentric Sherlock Holmes he finds that he has let himself in for a
great deal more than he imagined. He is called upon to help the
budding detective solve a perplexing mystery, involving a dead body
found in a locked room. Although the body shows no signs of having
been attacked Holmes is convinced that a murder has been committed. As
Watson looks on, he uses his exceptional powers of deduction to
unravel a case that involves both kidnapping and thwarted love.
Sir Arthur Conan Doyle was born on 22 May 1859 in Edinburgh. He
studied medicine at the University of Edinburgh and began to write
stories while he was a student. Over his life he produced more than
thirty books, 150 short stories, poems, plays and essays across a wide
range of genres. His most famous creation is the detective Sherlock
Holmes, who he introduced in his first novel
A Study in Scarlet
(1887). This was followed in 1889 by an historical novel,
Micah Clarke
. In 1893 Conan Doyle published 'The Final Problem' in which he killed
off his famous detective so that he could turn his attention more
towards historical fiction. However Holmes was so popular that Conan
Doyle eventually relented and published The Hound of the Baskervilles in
1901. The events of the
The Hound of the Baskervilles
are set before those of 'The Final Problem' but in 1903 new Sherlock
Holmes stories began to appear that revealed that the detective had not
died after all. He was finally retired in 1927. Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
died on 7 July 1930.
