'Jurassic Park' by Michael Crichton is all about a island park filled with dinosaurs (created by a bit of DNA extraction and cloning). The sequel is called 'The Lost World' which is also the title of a book by Arthur Conan Doyle.
'The Lost World' by Arthur Conan Doyle also takes place on a dinosaur filled island but this time it's because they are left over remnants from the past.
Arthur Conan Doyle wrote 'The Hound of the Baskervilles' which seems the keen, sharp mind of Sherlock Holmes pitted against supernatural and murderous giant, ghostly hounds who have already killed the original Lord Baskerville.
In his later life Arthur Conan Doyle was friends with Oscar Wilde and in Gyles Brandreth's 'Oscar Wilde and the Ring of Death' the pair are at a dinner party together but within 24-hours one of their fellow guests is dead. It's up to Oscar Wilde to solve the crime using logic and observation similar to that used by Sherlock Holmes.
Oscar Wilde himself is a famous writer and wit wrote the wonderful story of 'The Picture of Dorian Gray'. Dorian is a young, handsome man who upon seeing the painting his friend Basil has done of him says:
"How sad is that! I shall become old, ugly and disgusting .And this picture will stay always young and never be older then this June day…..Oh, if it only could be opposite! If I could stay young forever, and the picture getting old.! For that-for that i would give everything. For that i would give my SOUL!"So begins his curse for while he stays young and beautiful the picture begins to show his true face. The idea of having a dual personality is something that appears in Robert Louis Stevenson's 'Strange Case of Dr.Jekyll and Mr.Hyde'. While Dr.Jekyll is a respectable and honest man, Mr.Hyde is the exact opposite but the two are linked togther and the truth will come out.
Which leads to 'Knots and Crosses' by Ian Rankin like Stevenson's this is set in Edinburgh and similarly it looks at light and dark as Inspector Rebus frantically tries to stop a brutal killer.
