The Narrative of John Smith would not have considered publishing this work, he continued to use quotes, character frames, and themes of "The Narrative of John Smith" in many of his other works, such as "The Stark Munro Letters", "Through the Magic Door", "A Study in Scarlet", and "The Hound of the Baskervilles". In 2004, the then untitled manuscript of Arthur Conan Doyle's rewritten unpublished first novel was purchased at auction by The British Library. It was first published in 2011 by The British Library, edited by Jon Lellenberg, Daniel Stashower, and Rachel Foss. At the age of twenty-three when Conan Doyle wrote "The Narrative
The Murder on the Links week passes which does not bring a 'detective' story from one quarter or another, and several of the popular magazines rely mainly on that commodity. Among the later cultivators of this anything but lonely furrow the name of Agatha Christie is well in the front. If she has not the touch of artistry which made "The Speckled Band" and "The Hound of the Baskervilles" things of real horror, she has an unusual gift of mechanical complication." The reviewer went on to compare the novel with "The Mysterious Affair at Styles" which they called, "a remarkable piece of work" but warned