The Great Detective Fought the Anarchists

In his later years, Sherlock Holmes thwarted criminals who posed a threat against society. The preeminent detective’s statue near baker street in London. Massimo Todaro/ Shutterstock

Sir Arthur Conan Doyle (1859–1930) was never a fan of his most popular creation, the so-called great detective Sherlock Holmes. As much as readers loved the adventures of the supersleuth and his biographer, Dr. Watson, Doyle preferred writing historical romances like “The White Company” (1891) and “Rodney Stone” (1896) rather than detective stories.

Doyle’s disdain for Holmes ran so deep that he killed off the character in December 1893 with the publication of “The Final Problem.” The story features the apocalyptic duel between Holmes and the “Napoleon of crime,” Professor James Moriarty. Moriarty, the criminal supervillain of the Holmes canon, manages to wrestle Holmes to the bottom of Switzerland’s Reichenbach Falls, thereby ending the career of literature’s greatest detective.