When it comes to detectives, there's no question who stands far and above the rest of literature's daring crowd. Between a BBC series and the recent success of Robert Downey Jr. playing the role, Sherlock Holmes has become a staple in the modern imagination. Now, take a step back and enjoy some of the original stories and relive the magic that first made this character so timeless.

Sherlock Holmes was transformed when he was hot upon such a scent as this. Men who had only known the quiet thinker and logician of Baker Street would have failed to recognize him. His face flushed and darkened. His brows were drawn into two hard black lines, while his eyes shone out from beneath them with a steely glitter.' Set against the foggy, mysterious backdrops of London and the English countryside, these are the first twelve stories ever published to feature the infamous Detective Sherlock Holmes and his side kick Doctor Watson. They first appeared as stories in the Strand Magazine...

'"Holmes " I cried. "Is it really you? Can it indeed be that you are alive? Is it possible that you succeeded in climbing out of that awful abyss?'. The one and only Sherlock Holmes is sensationally back from the dead, and devoting his life once more to examining the criminal complexities of the capital. Cases of mysterious codes, persecuted millionaires, stalkers, abductions and a meeting with 'the worst man in London' are all attacked with renewed vigour. But Holmes' old enemies are watching his every move. Watching, waiting, plotting...

The Lost World is a novel released in 1912 by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle concerning an expedition to a plateau in the Amazon basin of South America where prehistoric animals (dinosaurs and other extinct creatures) still survive. The novel also describes a war between Native Americans and a vicious tribe of ape-like creatures. Sir Arthur Ignatius Conan Doyle DL (22 May 1859 - 7 July 1930) was a Scottish physician and writer, most noted for his stories about the detective Sherlock Holmes, generally considered a milestone in the field of crime fiction, and for the Adventures of Professor Challenger....

The Mystery of Cloomber is a novel by British author Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. It is narrated by John Fothergill West, a Scot who has moved with his family from Edinburgh to Wigtownshire to care for the estate of his father's half brother, William Farintosh. It was first published in 1889. Sir Arthur Ignatius Conan Doyle DL (22 May 1859 - 7 July 1930) was a Scottish physician and writer, most noted for his stories about the detective Sherlock Holmes, generally considered a milestone in the field of crime fiction, and for the Adventures of Professor Challenger. He was a prolific writer whose...

A Study in Scarlet is a detective mystery novel written by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, introducing his new characters, "consulting detective" Sherlock Holmes and his friend and chronicler Dr John Watson, who later became two of the most famous literary characters in detective fiction.

Conan Doyle wrote the story in 1886, and it was published the next year. The book's title derives from a speech given by Holmes to Doctor Watson on the nature of his work, in which he describes the story's murder investigation as his "study in scarlet" "There's the scarlet thread of murder running through the...

The Sign of the Four (1890), also called The Sign of Four, is the second novel featuring Sherlock Holmes written by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. Doyle wrote four novels and 56 stories starring the fictional detective.
The story is set in 1888. The Sign of the Four has a complex plot involving service in East India Company, India, the Indian Rebellion of 1857, a stolen treasure, and a secret pact among four convicts ("the Four" of the title) and two corrupt prison guards. It presents the detective's drug habit and humanizes him in a way that had not been done in the preceding novel A Study in...