I’m still doing a fair bit of reading, and right now it’s still very much a Sherlock Holmes phase. If only the screen adaptations, which I’ve always found awfully dull, were this good…
I also re-read a few Edgar Allan Poe shorts recently, which was, of course, a somewhat morbid experience. 🙂 There is a Holmes connection: Doyle was influenced by Poe’s M. Dupin character (found in The Murders in the Rue Morgue and a couple of other pieces). Dupin, to be honest, is a lot less convincing and engaging than Holmes. Still, morbid or not, the imagery conveyed in work such as The Masque of the Red Death is undeniably powerful and evocative.