A journalist and lifelong Sherlock Holmes fan explores Arthur Conan Doyle's original tales to reveal how they laid the groundwork for a myth of seemingly infinite variety in literary and screen adaptations.

Extensive biographies on the world of Sherlock Holmes, his enigmatic author and characters that have fascinated the world for decades.

"It has been one hundred years since Agatha Christie wrote her first novel and created the formidable Hercule Poirot. A brilliant and award winning biographer, Laura Thompson now turns her sharp eye to Agatha Christie. Arguably the greatest crime writer in the world, Christie's books still sell over four million copies each year-- more than thirty years after her death-- and it shows no signs of slowing. But who was the woman behind these mystifying,...

"Explores the parallel histories of Sherlock Holmes and England during the Victorian era. Black traces the evolution of Arthur Conan Doyle's plots and characters as culture and society changed dramatically in his lifetime"--