Editing Fingerprint (section)

=== Crime fiction ===
The use of fingerprints in crime fiction has, of course, kept pace with its use in real-life detection. Sir [[Arthur Conan Doyle]] wrote a short story about his celebrated sleuth [[Sherlock Holmes]] which features a fingerprint: "[[The Norwood Builder]]" is a 1903 short story set in 1894 and involves the discovery of a bloody fingerprint which helps Holmes to expose the real criminal and free his client.

The British detective writer [[R. Austin Freeman]]'s first Thorndyke novel ''The Red Thumb-Mark'' was published in 1907 and features a bloody fingerprint left on a piece of paper together with a parcel of diamonds inside a safe-box. These become the center of a medico-legal investigation led by [[Dr. Thorndyke]], who defends the accused whose fingerprint matches that on the paper, after the diamonds are stolen.