An even larger figure in British crime lore comes out of 1887 – Sherlock Holmes, who made his debut in Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s first novel, ‘A Study In Scarlet’.
As far as Victorian popular novels go, it stands up very well indeed, even more so as it manages to act as an introduction to Sherlock as well as a well-plotted mystery story, an accomplished bit of writing and an enjoyable read. My favourite bit has to be the way the middle third of the book appears to be a different, entirely unrelated novel, set on a different continent with different characters and of an apparently unrelated genre, until the two ends finally tie together in the final third.
A Study In Scarlet
A Study In Scarlet (text at Project Gutenberg)
A Study In Scarlet (audiobook read by Derek Jacobi)