Sherlock Holmes öykülerinin temel özelliklerinden birisi suçlunun ilk anda akla gelen kişinin dışında biri veya birileri olmasıdır. Sir Arthur Conan Doyle'un incelikle yazı tekniğiyle kurgulanmış olan öykülerinde Sherlock Holmes ve yardımcısı Dr. Watson olaylardaki sır perdesini hiç umulmadık yöntem ve tekniklerle kaldırmaktadır. Okuyucular, bir polisiye film izler gibi soluksuz okuyacağı öykülerde, Sherlock Holmes'un kıvrak zekâsına hayran olacaklar.
Sir Arthur Ignatius Conan Doyle was a Scottish writer and physician. He created the character Sherlock Holmes in 1887 for A Study in Scarlet, the first of four novels and fifty-six short stories about Holmes and Dr. Watson. The Sherlock Holmes stories are milestones in the field of crime fiction.
Doyle was a prolific writer. In addition to the Holmes stories, his works include fantasy and science fiction stories about Professor Challenger, and humorous stories about the Napoleonic soldier Brigadier Gerard, as well as plays, romances, poetry, non-fiction, and historical novels. One of Doyle's early short stories, "J. Habakuk Jephson's Statement" (1884), helped to popularise the mystery of the brigantine Mary Celeste, found drifting at sea with no crew member aboard.