Book description
The hit BBC series Sherlock, starring Benedict Cumberbatch,
offers a fresh, contemporary take on the classic Arthur Conan Doyle
stories, and has helped introduce a whole new generation of fans to
the legendary detective. The debut episode took as its inspiration the
very first Sherlock Holmes novel, A Study in Scarlet - and this
edition of Conan Doyle's novel will allow Sherlock fans to
discover, or re-discover, the power of that classic story.
A Study in Scarlet is the genre-defining work with which
popular crime fiction was born. A potent mix of serial murder,
suspense, cryptic clues, red herrings and revenge, the novel
introduces us to the world-famous characters of Sherlock Holmes, Dr
Watson and Inspector Lestrade and sees Sherlock and Dr Watson meet and
join forces for the first time as they track a mysterious killer that
stalks London's streets.
In addition to the original text, this edition also has an
introduction by Sherlock co-creator Steven Moffat, who explains
how it inspired the Sherlock script.
Sir Arthur Conan Doyle was born in Edinburgh in 1859. He trained
as a doctor at Edinburgh University and it was during this time that
he witnessed methods of diagnosis that would later inspire Sherlock
Holmes' astonishing methods of deduction. A Study in Scarlet
was Conan Doyle's first Sherlock Holmes novel, published in 1887, but
it was The Sign of Four, published in 1890, that catapulted him
to worldwide fame.
From 1891 he wrote short stories about the immortal detective for
The Strand magazine. He attempted to kill off Sherlock Holmes
in 1893, in The Final Problem, but was forced to revive him
after thousands of complaints. Conan Doyle died in 1930 having written
two more Sherlock Holmes novels, The Hound of the Baskervilles
and The Valley of Fear, both serialized in The Strand,
and a total of 56 short stories. Not only the master of popular crime
fiction, he also wrote the best-selling science fiction novel, The
Lost World from the Professor Challenger series.
