Doyle, unsuccessful in his medical practice, in need of money and a more satisfying career, had already sold a number of magazine stories when he wrote the novella, "A Study in Scarlet," the first Sherlock Holmes story, which, after many rejections, was published in Beeton''s Christmas Annual for 1887.
Harold March, the rising reviewer and social critic, was walking vigorously across a great tableland of moors and commons, the horizon of which was fringed with the far-off woods of the famous estate of Torwood Park.
Ships at anchor reared their tall masts, here and there; and the broad stream was enlivened and colored by junks and boats of all sizes and vivid hues, propelled on the screw principle by a great scull at the stern, with projecting handles for the crew to work; and at times a gorgeous mandarin boat, with two great glaring eyes set in the bows, came flying, rowed with forty paddles by an armed crew, whose shields hung on the gunwale and flashed fire in the sunbeams; the mandarin, in conical and buttoned hat, sitting on the top of his cabin calmly smoking Paradise, alias opium, while his gong boomed and his boat flew fourteen miles an hour, and all things scuttled out of his celestial way.
She was the largest, fastest, and latest thing in seagoing destroyers, and though the specifications called for but thirty-six knots' speed, she had made thirty-eight on her trial trip, and later, under careful nursing by her engineers, she had increased this to forty knots an hour-five knots faster than any craft afloat-and, with a clean bottom, this speed could be depended upon at any time it was needed.
Originally published in 1917, The Black Box follows expert criminologist Sanford Quest, as he and his colleagues attempt to bring a suspected killer to justice.
An English nobleman and his resourceful niece work together to uncover an international plot that hinges on the actions of a reserved but unpredictable prince.
