It's Elementary, Dear Watson. Holmes Books are Expensive

To go under the hammer soon? An inscribed copy of the book that introduced sleuth Sherlock Holmes.

The Telegraph writes...

The copy of A Study In Scarlet, the debut novel by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, is one of only two inscribed examples known to exist.

Sotheby's will auction the work, which it described as ''one of the rarest books of modern times'', in London this summer.

The book was published in 1887 and took fewer than three weeks to write.

Describing its significance, Sotheby's said: ''Undoubtedly the most important book Conan Doyle ever wrote, A Study In Scarlet gave birth to Sherlock Holmes, explained how he and Dr Watson came to be together and set in motion one of the most highly successful characters - and indeed the first major serial character - in English literature, a forerunner of everyone from Hercule Poirot to James Bond.''

Here's Basil Rathbone, playing the part of Holmes in "Sherlock Holmes and the Secret Weapon":