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Between 1841 and 1844, Edgar Allan Poe invented the genre of detective fiction with three mesmerizing stories of a young French eccentric named C. Auguste Dupin. Introducing to literature the concept of applying reason to solving crime, these tales brought Poe fame and fortune. Years later, Dorothy Sayers would describe “The Murders in the Rue Morgue” as “almost a complete manual of detective theory and practice.” Indeed, Poe’s short mysteries inspired the creation of countless literary sleuths, among them Sherlock Holmes. Today, the unique Dupin stories still stand out as utterly engrossing page-turners. Edgar Allan Poe is also famous for such works as «The Raven», «The Cask of Amontillado», «The Fall of the House of Usher», «The Masque of the Red Death», «The Pit and the Pendulum», «The Murders in the Rue Morgue», «The Tell-Tale Heart», «The Gold-Bug», «The Black Cat», «The Facts in the Case of M. Valdemar», «Hop-Frog» and many more.

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"The Man with the Twisted Lip", one of the 56 short Sherlock Holmes stories written by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, is the sixth of the twelve stories in The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes. The story was first published in the Strand Magazine in December 1891. Doyle ranked "The Man with the Twisted Lip'' sixteenth in a list of his nineteen favourite Sherlock Holmes stories. Late at night, Kate Whitney, a friend of Dr. Watson's wife, calls on them. Her husband, Isa, has been absent for several days. Frantic with worry, she begs Dr. Watson to fetch him home from the opium den where he goes. Watson does this; but he also finds his friend Sherlock Holmes in the den, disguised as an old man, seeking for clues among the habitués of the place. The case involves Mr. Neville St. Clair, a prosperous, respectable, punctual man, who is missing. His family's home is in the country, but he visits London every day on business. One day when Mr. St. Clair was in London, Mrs. St. Clair also went to London separately. She happened to pass down Upper Swandam Lane, a «vile alley» near the London docks, where the opium den is. Glancing up, she saw her husband at a second-floor window of the opium den. He vanished from the window immediately, and Mrs. St. Clair was sure that there was something wrong. Famous works of the author Arthur Conan Doyle's: «A Study in Scarlet», «Silver Blaze», «The Hound of the Baskervilles», «The Yellow Face», «A Scandal in Bohemia», «The Red-Headed League», A Case of Identity", «The Boscombe Valley Mystery», «The Five Orange Pips», «The Man with the Twisted Lip», «The Blue Carbuncle», «The Speckled Band», «The Engineer's Thumb», «The Noble Bachelor», «The Beryl Coronet», «The Copper Beeches» and many more.

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The Hound of the Baskervilles is the third of the four crime novels written by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle featuring the detective Sherlock Holmes. Originally serialised in The Strand Magazine from August 1901 to April 1902, it is set largely on Dartmoor in Devon in England's West Country and tells the story of an attempted murder inspired by the legend of a fearsome, diabolical hound of supernatural origin. Sherlock Holmes and his companion Dr. Watson investigate the case. This was the first appearance of Holmes since his apparent death in «The Final Problem», and the success of The Hound of the Baskervilles led to the character's eventual revival. According to an old legend, a curse runs in the Baskerville family since the time of the English Civil War, when a Sir Hugo Baskerville abducted and murdered a woman in the mires of Dartmoor, only to be killed in turn by a huge demonic hound. Allegedly the same creature has been haunting the place ever since, causing the premature death of many Baskerville heirs. Sir Charles believed in the plague of the hound and so does Mortimer, who now fears for the next in line, Sir Henry Baskerville. Even though he dismisses the whole curse story as nonsense, Holmes agrees to meet Sir Henry in London as soon as Sir Henry arrives from Canada, where his branch of the family had moved in the past. He is a young and jovial good-looking fellow, sceptical toward the grim legend and eager to take possession of Baskerville Hall, even though he has just found an anonymous note in the mail, warning him to stay away from the moor. When someone tries to shoot Sir Henry while he is walking down a street, however, Holmes asks Watson to go with the young man and Mortimer to Dartmoor, in order to protect Sir Henry and search for any clue about who is menacing his life. Among the most significant works Arthur Conan Doyle: A Study in Scarlet, The Sign of the Four, The Hound of the Baskervilles, The Valley of Fear, The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes, The Return of Sherlock Holmes, His Last Bow, The Case-Book of Sherlock Holmes, The Field Bazaar, The Story of the Lost Special, How Watson Learned the Trick and many more.

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"The Five Orange Pips", one of the 56 short Sherlock Holmes stories written by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, is the fifth of the twelve stories in The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes. The story was first published in The Strand Magazine in November 1891. Conan Doyle later ranked the story seventh in a list of his twelve favourite Sherlock Holmes stories. A young gentleman named John Openshaw has a strange story: in 1869 his uncle Elias Openshaw had suddenly come back to England to settle on an estate in Horsham, West Sussex after living for years in the United States as a planter in Florida and serving as a colonel in the Confederate Army. Not being married, Elias had allowed his nephew to stay at his estate. Strange incidents have occurred; one is that although John could go anywhere in the house, he could never enter a locked room containing his uncle's trunks. Another peculiarity was that in March 1883 a letter postmarked Pondicherry, in India, arrived for the Colonel inscribed only «K. K. K.» with five orange pips (seeds) enclosed. More strange things happened: Papers from the locked room were burnt and a will was drawn up leaving the estate to John Openshaw. The Colonel's behaviour became bizarre. He would either lock himself in his room and drink or he would go shouting forth in a drunken sally with a pistol in his hand. On 2 May 1883 he was found dead in a garden pool. Famous works of the author Arthur Conan Doyle's: «A Study in Scarlet», «Silver Blaze», «The Hound of the Baskervilles», «The Yellow Face», «A Scandal in Bohemia», «The Red-Headed League», A Case of Identity", «The Boscombe Valley Mystery», «The Five Orange Pips», «The Man with the Twisted Lip», «The Blue Carbuncle», «The Speckled Band», «The Engineer's Thumb», «The Noble Bachelor», «The Beryl Coronet», «The Copper Beeches» and many more.

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"The Boscombe Valley Mystery", one of the 56 short Sherlock Holmes stories written by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, is the fourth of the twelve stories in The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes. It was first published in the Strand Magazine in 1891. Lestrade summons Holmes to a community in Herefordshire, where a local landowner has been murdered outdoors. The deceased's estranged son is strongly implicated. Holmes quickly determines that a mysterious third man may be responsible for the crime, unraveling a thread involving a secret criminal past, thwarted love, and blackmail. Sherlock Holmes and Dr Watson take a train to Boscombe Valley, in Herefordshire. En route, Holmes reads the news and briefs Watson on their new case. John Turner, a widower and a major landowner who has a daughter named Alice, lives there with a fellow expatriate from Australia, Charles McCarthy, a widower who has a son named James. Charles has been found dead near Boscombe Pool; it was reported that he was there to meet someone. Two witnesses testify that they saw Charles walking into the woods followed by James, who was carrying a gun. Patience Moran, daughter of a lodgekeeper, says that she saw Charles and James arguing and that, when James raised his hand as if to hit his father, she ran to her mother, and while she was telling her mother what she saw James rushed to their house seeking help. The Morans followed James back to the Pool, where they found his father dead. James was arrested and charged with murder. Alice Turner believes that James is innocent and has contacted Lestrade, a Scotland Yard detective who in turn has asked Holmes' help. Famous works of the author Arthur Conan Doyle's: «A Study in Scarlet», «Silver Blaze», «The Hound of the Baskervilles», «The Yellow Face», «A Scandal in Bohemia», «The Red-Headed League», A Case of Identity", «The Boscombe Valley Mystery», «The Five Orange Pips», «The Man with the Twisted Lip», «The Blue Carbuncle», «The Speckled Band», «The Engineer's Thumb», «The Noble Bachelor», «The Beryl Coronet», «The Copper Beeches» and many more.

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The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes is a collection of twelve short stories by Arthur Conan Doyle, first published on 14 October 1892. It contains the earliest short stories featuring the consulting detective Sherlock Holmes, which had been published in twelve monthly issues of The Strand Magazine from July 1891 to June 1892. The stories are collected in the same sequence, which is not supported by any fictional chronology. The only characters common to all twelve are Holmes and Dr. Watson and all are related in first-person narrative from Watson's point of view. In general the stories in The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes identify, and try to correct, social injustices. Holmes is portrayed as offering a new, fairer sense of justice. The stories were well received, and boosted the subscriptions figures of The Strand Magazine, prompting Doyle to be able to demand more money for his next set of stories. The first story, «A Scandal in Bohemia», includes the character of Irene Adler, who, despite being featured only within this one story by Doyle, is a prominent character in modern Sherlock Holmes adaptations, generally as a love interest for Holmes. Doyle included four of the twelve stories from this collection in his twelve favourite Sherlock Holmes stories, picking «The Adventure of the Speckled Band» as his overall favourite. A collection of twelve short stories by Arthur Conan Doyle: "A Scandal in Bohemia" "The Red-Headed League" "A Case of Identity" "The Boscombe Valley Mystery" "The Five Orange Pips" "The Man with the Twisted Lip" "The Adventure of the Blue Carbuncle" "The Adventure of the Speckled Band" "The Adventure of the Engineer's Thumb" "The Adventure of the Noble Bachelor" "The Adventure of the Beryl Coronet" "The Adventure of the Copper Beeches"

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"The Adventure of the Noble Bachelor", one of the 56 short Sherlock Holmes stories written by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, is the tenth of the twelve stories collected in The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes. The story was first published in Strand Magazine in April 1892. The story entails the disappearance of Hatty, Lord St. Simon's bride on the day of their marriage. She participates in the wedding, but disappears from the reception. The events of the wedding day are most perplexing to Lord St. Simon as it seemed to him that his bride, Miss Hatty Doran of San Francisco, was full of enthusiasm about their impending marriage. St. Simon tells Holmes that he noticed a change in the young lady's mood just after the wedding ceremony. She was uncharacteristically sharp with him. The only thing out of the ordinary at the church where the wedding took place was Hatty's little accident: she dropped her wedding bouquet and a gentleman in the front pew picked it up and handed it back to her. Famous works of the author Arthur Conan Doyle's: «A Study in Scarlet», «Silver Blaze», «The Hound of the Baskervilles», «The Yellow Face», «A Scandal in Bohemia», «The Red-Headed League», A Case of Identity", «The Boscombe Valley Mystery», «The Five Orange Pips», «The Man with the Twisted Lip», «The Blue Carbuncle», «The Speckled Band», «The Engineer's Thumb», «The Noble Bachelor», «The Beryl Coronet», «The Copper Beeches» and many more.

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"The Adventure of the Copper Beeches", one of the 56 short Sherlock Holmes stories written by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, is the last of the twelve collected in The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes. It was first published in Strand Magazine in June 1892. Violet Hunter visits Holmes, asking whether she should accept a job as governess; a job with very strange conditions. She is enticed by the phenomenal salary which, as originally offered, is £100 a year, later increased to £120 when Miss Hunter baulks at having to cut her long hair short (her previous position paid £48 a year). This is only one of many peculiar provisos to which she must agree. The employer, Jephro Rucastle, seems pleasant enough, yet Miss Hunter obviously has her suspicions. She announces to Holmes, after the raised salary offer, that she will take the job, and Holmes suggests that if he is needed, a telegram will bring him to Hampshire, where Mr Rucastle's country estate, the Copper Beeches, is situated. After a fortnight, Holmes receives such a message, beseeching him to come and see her in Winchester. Miss Hunter tells them one of the most singular stories that they have ever heard. Mr. Rucastle would sometimes have Miss Hunter wear a particular electric blue dress and sit in the front room reading, with her back to the front window. She began to suspect that she was not supposed to see something outside the window, and a small mirror shard hidden in her handkerchief showed her that she was right: there was a man standing there on the road looking towards the house. Famous works of the author Arthur Conan Doyle's: «A Study in Scarlet», «Silver Blaze», «The Hound of the Baskervilles», «The Yellow Face», «A Scandal in Bohemia», «The Red-Headed League», A Case of Identity", «The Boscombe Valley Mystery», «The Five Orange Pips», «The Man with the Twisted Lip», «The Blue Carbuncle», «The Speckled Band», «The Engineer's Thumb», «The Noble Bachelor», «The Beryl Coronet», «The Copper Beeches» and many more.

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"The Adventure of the Blue Carbuncle" is one of 56 short Sherlock Holmes stories written by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, the seventh story of twelve in the collection The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes. It was first published in Strand Magazine in January 1892. As London prepares for Christmas, newspapers report the theft of the near-priceless gemstone, the «Blue Carbuncle», from the hotel suite of the Countess of Morcar. John Horner, a plumber and a previously convicted felon, is soon arrested for the theft. Despite Horner's claims of innocence, the police are sure that they have their man. Horner's record, and his presence in the Countess's room where he was repairing a fireplace, are all the police need. Just after Christmas, Watson pays a visit to Holmes at 221B Baker Street. He finds the detective contemplating a battered old hat brought to him by the commissionaire, Peterson. Both the hat and a Christmas goose had been dropped by a man in a scuffle with some street ruffians. The honest Peterson had sought Holmes's help in returning the items to their owner but although the goose bears a tag with the owner's name—Henry Baker—based on the number of people with this name in London there is little hope of finding the man. Peterson takes the goose home for dinner, and Holmes keeps the hat to study as an intellectual exercise. Famous works of the author Arthur Conan Doyle's: «A Study in Scarlet», «Silver Blaze», «The Hound of the Baskervilles», «The Yellow Face», «A Scandal in Bohemia», «The Red-Headed League», A Case of Identity", «The Boscombe Valley Mystery», «The Five Orange Pips», «The Man with the Twisted Lip», «The Blue Carbuncle», «The Speckled Band», «The Engineer's Thumb», «The Noble Bachelor», «The Beryl Coronet», «The Copper Beeches» and many more.

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"The Adventure of the Beryl Coronet", one of the 56 short Sherlock Holmes stories written by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, is the eleventh of the twelve stories collected in The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes. The story was first published in Strand Magazine in May 1892. A banker, Mr. Alexander Holder of Streatham, makes a loan of £50,000 to a socially prominent client, who leaves a beryl coronet—one of the most valuable public possessions in existence—as collateral. Holder feels that he must not leave this rare and precious piece of jewellery in his personal safe at the bank, and so he takes it home with him to lock it up there. He is awakened in the night by a noise, enters his dressing room, and is horrified to see his son Arthur with the coronet in his hands, apparently trying to bend it. Holder's niece Mary comes at the sound of all the shouting and, seeing the damaged coronet, faints dead away. Three beryls are missing from it. In a panic, Mr. Holder travels to see Holmes, who agrees to take the case. The case against Arthur seems rather damning, yet Holmes is not convinced of his guilt. Why is Arthur refusing to give a statement of any kind? How could Arthur have broken the coronet (even Holmes, who has exceptionally strong hands, cannot do it) and without making any noise? Could any other people in the household be involved, such as the servants, or Mary? Could some visitor, such as the maid's wooden-legged suitor, or Arthur's rakish friend Sir George Burnwell, have something to do with what happened to the coronet? The failure to resolve the case will result in Mr. Holder's dishonour, and a national scandal. Famous works of the author Arthur Conan Doyle's: «A Study in Scarlet», «Silver Blaze», «The Hound of the Baskervilles», «The Yellow Face», «A Scandal in Bohemia», «The Red-Headed League», A Case of Identity", «The Boscombe Valley Mystery», «The Five Orange Pips», «The Man with the Twisted Lip», «The Blue Carbuncle», «The Speckled Band», «The Engineer's Thumb», «The Noble Bachelor», «The Beryl Coronet», «The Copper Beeches» and many more.

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