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In 1893, Arthur Conan Doyle “killed” his most famous fictional character, Sherlock Holmes. When the issue of The Strand magazine with Holmes’ death hit newsstands, it sparked the first ever fan riot. 20,000 subscribers immediately cancelled their subscriptions. Readers sent hate mail to the author. Heartbroken Swiss fans erected a memorial at Reichenbach Falls, the site of Holmes’ demise. Fans went about wearing black armbands, as if they’d lost a dear friend or family member. In a gross miscalculation, Doyle assumed the great detective was merely a distraction for himself and his readers; a roadblock preventing the success of his more “serious” historical fiction. Doyle claimed, “I feel towards him as I do towards paté de foie gras, of which I once ate too much, so the name of it gives me a sickly feeling.” When Holmes was finally resurrected in 1901 with The Hound of the Baskervilles, sales broke records. And Doyle received a knighthood.