Arthur Conan Doyle got sick of Sherlock Holmes

Following Conan Doyle's agreement with the Strand Magazine to publish a collection of short stories starring the brilliant detective, Sherlock Holmes' fame took off. When new issues came out, readers would wait in line at newsagents, and Conan Doyle eventually rose to become one of the highest-paid authors of his day. But the public's devotion to Sherlock Holmes irritated him. Conan Doyle also produced dramas, poems, and historical novels, but he believed that his detective fiction eclipsed these other, more profound works. The author made the comment, "I have had such an overdose that I feel against him as I do towards pâté of foie gras, of which I once ate too much, so that the name of it gives me a terrible feeling to this day".

Conan Doyle killed off Sherlock Holmes by having him fall to his death over the Reichenbach Falls in Switzerland in the 1893 tale "The Final Problem." More than 20,000 fans protested by canceling their subscriptions to the Strand because they were outraged. The Hound of the Baskervilles, which takes place before Holmes's demise, marked the end of Conan Doyle's eight-year publishing hiatus. Conan Doyle made the decision to revive his beloved detective in 1903 after receiving an incredible offer from American and British publishers. He wrote 56 short tales and four novels featuring Sherlock Holmes throughout the course of his career, which admirers now refer to as the "Canon."