Sherlock Holmes is a fictional detective created by Scottish author and physician Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. A brilliant London based ""consulting detective"", Holmes is famous for his astute logical reasoning, his ability to take almost any disguise, and his use of forensic science skills to solve difficult cases. These two volumes contain all the Four Novels and Fifty Six Short Stories. The first story, A Study in Scarlet, appeared in 1887 and the second, The Sign of the Four, in 1890. The character grew tremendously in popularity with the beginning of the first series of short stories in 1891; further series of short stories and two novels published in serial form appeared between then and 1927. The stories cover a period from around 1880 up to 1914. In two stories (""The Musgrave Ritual"" and ""The Gloria Scott""), Holmes tells Watson the main story from his memories, while Watson becomes the narrator of the frame story. The first and fourth novels, A Study in Scarlet and The Valley of Fear, each include a long interval of omniscient narration recounting events unknown both to Holmes and to Watson.