Who killed Sherlock Holmes?

The only person who could truly kill the world’s greatest detective is the man who created him, Arthur Conan Doyle.

Let’s step into a Hansom cab as we rattle down the foggy streets of Victorian London in the company of the world’s greatest detective, Sherlock Holmes and his loyal companion Dr Watson.

Doyle had no idea that he was creating such an enduring icon when his first Sherlock Holmes adventure, the novella A Study in Scarlet, was published in 1887.

Sherlock Holmes became the first scientific detective who had a remarkable facility for making keen observations and deducing facts from what he had observed.

By the 1890s, Sherlock Holmes was wildly popular, but author Arthur Conan Doyle was exhausted with the character that made him so famous.

Arthur Conan Doyle

So, in 1893, he killed off Holmes.

To say readers were outraged is an understatement.

Holmes first appeared in two novels, A Study in Scarlet and The Sign of Four, in 1891, but it was not until he began appearing in a series of short stories in the Strand Magazine that his popularity and fame grew. The classic image of Holmes in an Inverness cape and a deerstalker cap, created by the Strand illustrator, Sidney Paget, became instantly recognizable.

More than 20,000 people cancelled their subscriptions to The Strand Magazine, where Holmes’ stories had been serialized.

The backlash lasted for years. Under immense pressure, Doyle gave in and brought Sherlock Holmes back to life.

In what was supposed to be Sherlock Holmes's last novel, ‘The Final Problem,' Doyle had Holmes plunge to his death at Switzerland’s Reichenbach Falls while grappling with his nemesis, Professor Moriarty.

Doyle thought it would free him to pursue other writing projects.

Instead, it sparked one of the first great pop culture revolts.

Readers wore black armbands to show their disgust at his death as they were in mourning for the world’s greatest detective.

Newspapers blasted Doyle for murdering a character who had become almost real to the public.

The backlash lasted for years.

Under immense pressure, and perhaps tempted by the financial windfall, Arthur Conan Doyle finally resurrected Sherlock Holmes, where he reveals Sherlock survived the fall by faking his own death to the astonishment of Dr Watson and delight of his readers.

You know, Sherlock Holmes never said "Elementary, my dear Watson" in any of the stories, but what he did say was:

 When you have eliminated the impossible, whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth.