Sherlock Holmes

When Doyle began writing short stories he wrote crime mysteries, the ones I looked at were "The Speckled Band" a murder story, "Silver Blaze" a murder story with a slight twist and the "Red Headed League" a "who dunnit" but they are all classed as crime mysteries. Most of Conan Doyle's earlier books were based around many of Edgar Allan Poe's writing. He is often referred to as the creator of detective stories. One of Doyle's short stories "The Speckled Band" is predominantly Poe- like. Poe wrote three short stories featuring the detective Auguste Dupin. Like Holmes he also has a companion who's the narrator of the story. This device is used in many other detective stories: 'Dalziel & Pascoe', Poirot and Captain Hastings and Morse and Lewis. .
             "The Man with the Twisted Lip" and "Shoscombe Old Place" are stories where no actual crimes are committed despite there being suspicions of one. "His Last Bow" which is one of the later stories shows many changes which took place during that period, but it also tells us that there was no longer a demand for his previous types of writing. So Conan Doyle moved with the times and began writing spy thrillers. Short stories like these were also published by well-liked authors of the time Erskine Childers and John Buchan. .
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             Not only were the books popular during the Victorian and Edwardian times, they are still popular today. This is purely because of many devices which Conan Doyle chooses to use through his writing and the way in which he changed his style of writing to fit his audience throughout a period of 35 years. He uses many dates "It was early April in the year 1983"", The morning chronicle of April the 27th,1890. The people of that era have lived through these times and people of this generation can now refer back to memorable events which happened during them.
             As Sherlock and Watson lived in London most cases were set around the area. These were places where "Jack the Rippers" murders were being committed and also at a time where the public did not have faith or respect for the police.