Valley of Fear by Arthur Conan Doyle, Fiction, Mystery & Detective

"You have heard me speak of Professor Moriarty? The greatest schemer of all time, the organizer of every deviltry, the controlling brain of the underworld, a brain which might have made or marred the destiny of nations -- That's genius, Watson. But if I am spared by lesser men, our day will surely come."

Sherlock Holmes is the one true pastmaster of the modern mystery.