A master of deductive reasoning who can solve the most difficult crimes by spotting obscure clues overlooked by others, dilettante sleuth Sherlock Holmes was the hero of sixty stories written by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle between 1887 and 1927. With the help of his loyal friend, Doctor Watson, Holmes brought countless crooks, thieves, swindlers, and murderers to justice. He even rose from the dead after Doyle tried to dispatch him in his twenty-fourth adventure, and readers protested. Some Sherlock Holmes stories rank among the most famous in detective fiction, among them "A Study in Scarlet, " "A Scandal in Bohemia, " "The Speckled Band, " and "The Hound of the Baskervilles. "