 In 1898 he wrote " In the Chains of Crime " , which introduced Raffles and his sidekick , Bunny Manders ; the characters were based partly on his friends Oscar Wilde and his lover , Lord Alfred Douglas , and also on Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson . The series of Raffles short stories were collected for sale in book form in 1899 , and two further books of Raffles short stories followed , as well as a poorly received novel . Aside from his Raffles stories , Hornung was a prodigious writer of fiction , publishing numerous books from 1890 , with A Bride from the Bush to his 1914 novel The Crime Doctor . 
