This vivid biography, written by John Dickson Carr, a giant in the field of mystery fiction, benefits from his full access to the archives of the eminent Sir Arthur Conan Doyle—to his notebooks, diaries, press clippings, and voluminous correspondence. Like his creation Sherlock Holmes, Doyle had "a horror of destroying documents," and until his death in 1930, they accumulated to vast amount throughout his house at Windlesham. They provide many of the words incorporated by Carr in this lively portrayal of Doyle’s forays into politics, his infatuation with spiritualism, his literary ambitions, and dinner-table conversations with friends like H. G. Wells and King Edward VII. Carr, then, in a sense collaborates with his subject to unfold a colorful narrative that takes Doyle from his school days at Stonyhurst to Edinburgh University and a medical practice at Southsea, where he conceived the idea of wedding scientific study to criminal investigation in the fictive person of Sherlock Holmes. It also explores the private tragedy of Doyle’s first marriage and long-delayed second as it follows him into the arena of public activity, propaganda, and literary output that would win him not only celebrity but also knighthood. 8 pages of black-and-white photographs are featured.

约翰•狄克森•卡尔（1906-1977），20世纪上半期推理小说黄金时代重要作家，美国推理协会终身大师奖得主。卡尔一生致力于创作密室与不可能犯罪推理小说，风格神秘诡异，密室设计精妙，极大拓展了密室类古典推理小说的创作空间，被誉为“密室之王”。其作品《三口棺材》一向被称为密室推理第一佳作，代表作尚包括《歪曲的枢纽》《犹大之窗》等。