Sherlock Holmes, Murderer?

By Stephen M. Silverman

07/29/1998 at 12:00 AM EDT

Sherlock Holmes's creator, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, a plagiarist and a murderer? Quick Watson, a strong drink! Britain's Independent newspaper reports that after a reputed 11-year investigation, writer Rodger Garrick-Steele, in his new book, "The House of Baskervilles," has concluded that Conan Doyle swiped the idea for his novel "The Hound of the Baskervilles" from his friend Bertram Fletcher Robinson and then poisoned him with an assist from Robinson's wife Gladys -- with whom Conan Doyle was having an affair. Balderdash, claims an outraged Sherlock Holmes Society, which refuses to accept the theory. A spokesman for the group, after having their hero's creator besmirched, called Garrick-Steele's claims "complete bunkum."