The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle; Sherlock Holmes, Book 4; Unabridged MP3 Audio Book; Narrator Ralph Cosham

These delightful stories of the famous hawkeyed detective are told by his friend and foil, Dr. Watson. Sir Arthur Conan Doyle draws us into nineteenth-century London—hansom cabs, train rides, and foggy nights—where he astutely solves the most complex and perplexing cases of the day. Among the short stories included in this collection is “The Gloria Scott,” an account of Holmes’s very first case.

The various adventures in The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes are overshadowed by the event with which they close—the meeting of the great detective and Moriarty, the Napoleon of Crime. That struggle, seemingly to the death, was to leave many readers desolate at the loss of Holmes but was also to lead to his immortality as a literary figure.

“Sherlock Holmes is the very foundation stone of the edifice that is crime fiction.”—Times (London)

“What is there about the greatest series of short stories in the history of the world that hasn’t already been said? This is the second (of five) story collections by Doyle about the greatest detective in literature—and a splendid volume it is.”—Amazon.com review

Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, a Scottish writer whose works include science fiction stories, historical novels, plays, romances, poetry, and nonfiction, is best known as the creator of the detective Sherlock Holmes. While Holmes was the embodiment of scientific thinking, Doyle himself did not exhibit the same rationality, believing in fairies and occultism. His Sherlock Holmes stories have been translated into more than fifty languages and have been made into plays, films, radio and television series, cartoons, and comic books. By 1920, Doyle was one of the most highly paid writers in the world. Other works by Doyle include The Lost World, the first book in the Professor Challenger series; The White Company, one of his many historical novels; and The Great Boer War.

Doyle was born at Picardy Place, near Edinburgh, in 1859. He was educated in Jesuit schools and studied at Edinburgh University. In 1884, he married Louise Hawkins. Doyle qualified as a doctor in 1885 and practiced medicine as an eye specialist in Hampshire until 1891, when he became a full-time writer. Doyle's first Sherlock Holmes story, A Study in Scarlet, was published in 1887 and introduced the detective's faithful associate, Dr. Watson.

During the Boer war in South Africa (1899–1902), Doyle served several months as the senior physician at a field hospital. There he wrote The War in South Africa, in which he expressed the imperial view. He twice ran unsuccessfully for Parliament but nevertheless was knighted in 1902. In 1907, fourteen months after his wife died, Doyle married Jean Leckie. After his son Kingsley died in the first World War, Doyle dedicated himself to spiritualistic studies at his home in Windlesham, Sussex. He died himself in 1930.