Ms. McCoy - Literature

 ACCOMPLICE: a person who knowingly helps another in a crime or wrongdoing  ALIAS: known by another name; pseudonym  ALIBI: An excuse that a suspect uses to show that he or she was somewhere other than at the scene of the crime when the crime was committed  BREAKTHROUGH: any significant or sudden advance, development, achievement, or increase, as in knowledge

 CLUE: a fact or object that helps to solve mysteries  CRIME: an act that is against the law

 DEDUCE: to derive at a conclusion from something known or assumed; infer  DETECTIVE: a person who investigates mysteries and gathers information

 EVIDENCE: something that helps prove who committed the crime  HUNCH: a premonition or suspicion; guess

 MOTIVE: something that causes a person to act in a certain way; do a certain thing  MYSTERY: something that is secret and unknown

 PLOT: When reading a mystery, the story usually includes one of the following: A problem that needs to be solved An event that cannot be explained A secret Something that is lost or missing A crime that has been committed  RED HERRING: a false lead that throws the investigator off track

 SLEUTH: another name for a detective  SUSPECT: a person who is believed to have possibly committed the crime

 VICTIM: someone who is harmed or suffers some loss because of the crime  WITNESS: someone who saw the crime being committed and can provide some information

Sir Arthur Conan Doyle was the creator of Sherlock Holmes, the best-known detective in literature. The character Sherlock Holmes is best known for his deductive reasoning.

 Sherlock Holmes stories have been translated into more than fifty languages, and made into plays, films, radio and television series, a musical comedy, a ballet, cartoons, comic books, and advertisement. By 1920 Doyle was one of the most highly paid writers in the world.

 Born May 22, 1859 in Scotland  Father suffered from epilepsy and alcoholism and eventually ended up institutionalized  Mother and step-father was a positive influence on young Doyle

 The young Doyle attended all Catholic schools growing up  He attended Edinburgh University  Doyle became an ophthalmologist (eye doctor) in 1885  In 1891 he become a full time writer

 1887 – Sherlock Holmes was first introduced in a story that took Doyle 3 weeks to write  In this story he introduced Holmes’ assistant Watson and Holmes’ famous address 211B Baker Street  In 1902 – Doyle tried to kill the character of Sherlock Holmes off – but the public demanded more and so more was written in 1903

 He served in the South African War (1899 – 1902) for a few months as a head physician  He was married twice  Doyle ran unsuccessfully for Parliament in 1900 and again in 1906  He was knighted in 1902

 Doyle was really nothing like his character Sherlock Holmes – he actually was a huge believer in fairies and spent more than a million dollars supporting the cause of these “little people”

 Doyle died on July 7, 1930 from heart disease at his home, Windlesham, Sussex

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