This collection of the fictional exploits of the world's first consulting detective gathers in one volume the first twelve stories in the series, first published in the Strand Magazine from July 1891 to June 1892 and reprinted in book form almost immediately afterward, in the fall of 1892. From femme fatales to missing gems to strange goings-on at a remote country manor, Holmes's powers of deduction and cool reserve will be tested at every turn in these classic adventures: . "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" Scottish surgeon and political activist SIR ARTHUR CONAN DOYLE (1859-1930) turned his passions into stories and novels, producing fiction and nonfiction works sometimes controversial (The Great Boer War, 1900), sometimes fanciful (The Coming of the Fairies, 1922), and sometimes legendary (The Hound of the Baskervilles, 1902).