Today, May 22, is the birthday of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle (1859-1930). And while his other work will almost certainly be eclipsed by Sherlock Holmes, Doyle produced an extensive body of work that should be in any library of adventure literature, fantastic or not. If you haven’t read “The Captain of the Polestar” or “The Horror of the Heights”, do yourself a favor and get your hands on copies.

For today’s post, I’m going to look at “The Story of the Beetle-Hunter”. It’s from the June 1898 issue of The Strand, one of the premiere fiction magazines of the day. It’s also the first of the stories collected in Round the Fire Stories, a series of mysteries published in The Strand after the “death” of Sherlock Holmes.

In “The Story of the Beetle-Hunter”, a young doctor by the name of Hamilton has recently graduated from medical school but has yet to set up his practice. In fact, he’s looking for any excuse not to when he spies an ad in the paper requesting a medical man with a knowledge beetles to apply at a particular address by noon.

Hamilton fits all the requirements, unusual as they may be, and applies. He’s soon hired by a member of the nobility to spend a day or two with his employer at the estate of the employer’s brother-in-law. The brother-in-law is one of the leading experts on beetles in the world.

What Hamilton finds is a situation of scandal and madness.

“The Story of the Beetle-Hunter” is a well-written little mystery. It reminded em I need to read more Conan Doyle. Check out something by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle today.