Sir Arthur Conan Doyle was born in Edinburgh in 1859 and died in 1930. He studied medicine at Edinburgh University and later set up practice as a doctor at Southsea. It was while waiting for patients to arrive that he began to write and it was the success of his many adventure stories that allowed him to actively pursue the many causes that captured his attention, whether it was divorce law reform or the issuing of steel helmets to troops. However, it is for the enduring appeal of his Sherlock Holmes' stories that Conan Doyle will always be remembered.

Sherlock Holmes is the world's most famous consulting detective. He resides at 221B Baker Street in London, where prospective clients can always reach him. While the police are known to make extensive use of his talents and the criminal fraternity to tremble with fear or fury at mere mention of his name, it is to the most bizarre or thoroughly inexplicable of mysteries that Sherlock Holmes - together with his dogged companion and amanuensis Dr Watson - is most often drawn.

The four classic novels of Sherlock Holmes now available in a separate, attractively priced individual volume.

The publication of Leslie S. Klinger's brilliant new annotations of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's four classic Holmes novels in 2005 created a Holmes sensation. Available again in an attractively-priced edition identical to the first, except this edition has no outer slipcase.

Klinger reassembles Doyle's four seminal novels in their original order, with over 1,000 notes, 350 illustrations and period photographs, and tantalizing new Sherlockian theories. Inside, readers will find:

• A Study in Scarlet (1887)—a tale of murder and revenge that tells of Holmes and Dr. Watson's first meeting;

• The Sign of Four (1889)—a cinematic tale of lost treasure;

• The Hound of the Baskervilles (1901)—hailed as the greatest mystery novel of all time; and

• The Valley of Fear (1914)—a fresh murder scene that leads Holmes to solve a long-forgotten mystery.

Whether as a stand-alone volume or as a companion to the short stories, this classic work illuminates the timeless genius of Conan Doyle for an entirely new generation. Two-colour text; 300 illustrations.