The biggest thorn in Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s side was the world’s obstinate obsession with just one of his creations: Sherlock Holmes. And now, 94 years after the author’s death, the story is much the same: the deerstalker hat and pipe remain the internationally recognised emblems of the greatest detective who never lived. The boxing gloves of Rodney Stone, his other adventuring hero? Or the bushy beard of The Lost World explorer Professor George Challenger? Not so much.
But Conan Doyle’s descendants have a longterm plan to correct this imbalance, and the Observer can reveal their latest weapon. Thriller writer Gareth Rubin is bringing out a new, officially approved Holmes story that will give equal billing to arch-villain Professor James Moriarty. The new novel unites the detecting skills of the talented sleuth with those of his greatest adversary, a criminal mastermind who runs an unseen network of thieves, murderers and blackmailers and yet never leaves a trace to link him to the scene.
