Arthur Conan Doyle (1859-1930) was a British writer best known for his detective fiction featuring the character Sherlock Holmes. In 1887 he published A Study in Scarlet, the first of four novels about Holmes and Dr. Watson. In addition, he wrote over fifty short stories featuring the famous detective. The Sherlock Holmes stories are generally considered milestones in the field of crime fiction. Doyle also wrote many supernatural stories and was a brilliant master of the genre.