'I have my eye on a suite in Baker Street . . .'

So said Sherlock Holmes when he and Dr Watson first met. Their humble address at 221B Baker Street has since become almost as famous as the great detective himself, the incredible popularity of Sherlock Holmes' adventures never wavering over the last 120 years.

Dr Watson's initial encounter with Holmes came in Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's first Sherlock Holmes novel A Study in Scarlet, first published in 1887. The tale involves the investigation of a grisly murder in foggy South London that casts a sinister shadow all the way across the Atlantic to the sun-scorched plains of Utah.

The Sign of Four, the second novel, was first published in 1890. This is a tale of a damsel in distress, intrigue in colonial India, stolen treasure, a baffling murder and four despicable ex-convicts.

Perhaps the most famous of all Sherlock Holmes stories was the third novel, The Hound of the Baskervilles. Featuring bizarre behavior and mysterious deaths on the Devon moors, the tale first appeared in print in 1901.

In 1914, the final Sherlock Holmes novel, The Valley of Fear, saw Holmes unraveling the mystery of a dead man's mistaken identity while facing up to his old foe, Professor Moriarty.

Although many more of Holmes' cases were recorded in short stories, these were the only novels. Each is faithfully reproduced in this one epic volume, complete and unabridged, providing an ideal introduction to Sherlock Holmes for the uninitiated as well as a nostalgically familiar collection for long-established Holmes fans.