Book excerpt: In glancing over my notes of the seventy odd cases in which I have during the last eight years studied at the methods of my friend Sherlock Holmes, I find many tragic, some comic, a large number merely strange, but none commonplace. So writes Dr. Watson, sidekick, and partner-in-crime-solving to the great detective, Sherlock Holmes, in one of the ten classic tales of mystery and detection collected in this volume. Included are several stories that Holmes's creator, Arthur Conan Doyle, himself selected as the intrepid pair's greatest adventures, among them A Scandal in Bohemia, The Speckled Band, The Red-Headed League, and The Final Problem, in which Doyle famously 'killed off his' creation. The book also includes the complete short novel The Hound of the Baskervilles. Sherlock Holmes: Classic Stories is one of Barnes & Noble's Collectible Editions classics. Each volume features authoritative texts by the world's greatest authors in an exquisitely designed foil-stamped binding, with distinctive colored edging and a silk-ribbon bookmark. Decorative, durable, and collectible, these books offer hours of pleasure to readers young and old and are an indispensable cornerstone for any home library.