Erm, to those of you who state that DC is based on Sherlock Holmes, I'd like to mention that DC seems to be influenced by many mystery series - I'm sure that Sherlock Holmes has a huge influence, but if you just look at the characters' names, you see that Gosho is familiar with quite a lot of detective stories.
For example:
Edogawa Conan comes from Edogawa Ranpo, the author of Akechi Kogoro and Detective Boys series, and Conan Doyle (obviously)
Mouri Ran seems to be a pun on Maurice Leblanc, the author of the Lupin series, as I mentioned in my previous post - Mouri may also be a pun on Moriarty, who knows.
Mouri Kogoro comes from Akechi Kogoro, written by Edogawa Ranpo
Agasa is named after Agatha Christie, of course
Cafe Poirot is named after Hercules Poirot, obviously
Detective Boys is named after the Detective Boys in Edogawa Ranpo's novels, as well as the Irregulars from the Sherlock Holmes series, it seems
Edogawa Fumiyo seems to be named after Akechi Fumiyo, the wife of Akechi Kogoro
So I wouldn't assume that DC's main plot will follow Sherlock Holmes, since Gosho clearly knows a lot of mysteries. In fact Edogawa Ranpo's influence seems to equal that of Conan Doyle's, from the names of the characters.