?I like the way your mind works,? said Doyle. ?We should work on something together. Pool our resources. What do you say?? I said I would like that very much?

Young journalist Bertram Fletcher Robinson can barely believe his luck when he meets his hero, Arthur Conan Doyle, on a troop ship coming back from South Africa. Better yet, the creator of Sherlock Holmes suggests they collaborate on a ?real creeper? of a story?a plan that throws them into one of the most dramatic and harrowing adventures of their lives.

The two travel to Dartmoor, England, cementing their friendship as they start work on what will become one of the world?s most famous novels, The Hound of the Baskervilles. But the experience proves traumatic for both of them, and when the book?anticipated to be Sherlock?s comeback vehicle ? is finally published, it is credited to one author alone.

Based on real events, Baskerville is a creeper too: a thrilling exploration of friendship and rivalry, love and lust, ambition and the limits of talent. It takes us from the clattering heart of Edwardian London to the eerie stillness of ancient West Country moors, where a treacherous bog might swallow a man in seconds?

John O?Connell worked as books editor for Time Out for several years. He now writes, mostly about books, for The Times, The Guardian, New Statesman and The National. He is also the author of I Told You I Was Ill: Adventures in Hypochondria and The Midlife Manual.