Arthur Conan Doyle Books in Order: Complete Sherlock Holmes Guide
Arthur Conan Doyle's complete Sherlock Holmes bibliography in order — from A Study in Scarlet to The Case-Book. Reading order, best stories, and where to start.
Arthur Conan Doyle created Sherlock Holmes in 1887 and spent the next forty years trying to escape him. Holmes is the most famous fictional detective in the history of literature — the character who established the genre’s conventions (the brilliant eccentric detective, the foil companion, the impossible crime with a rational solution) and who has been adapted, reimagined, and continued in every medium ever since. The character outlived his creator’s enthusiasm by decades and shows no sign of diminishing.
Doyle wrote sixty Holmes stories across forty years: four novels and fifty-six short stories, collected in five volumes. The quality varies considerably — the early stories are generally the finest — but the best of them (the short stories of The Adventures and The Memoirs, the novel The Hound of the Baskervilles) are among the most enduring popular literature in English.
Where to Start
The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes (1892)
The right starting point. Twelve short stories — including “A Scandal in Bohemia” (introducing Irene Adler, the only woman to outwit Holmes), “The Red-Headed League,” “A Case of Identity,” and “The Adventure of the Speckled Band” (the most celebrated single Holmes story) — published in The Strand Magazine and collected in 1892. These stories represent Doyle at the peak of his Holmes writing: the plots are ingenious, the characterisation is sharp, and the Baker Street atmosphere is fully established.
“A Scandal in Bohemia,” the first story in the collection, is where most readers who approach Holmes for the first time should begin.
The Hound of the Baskervilles (1902)
The best full-length Holmes novel and the most atmospheric. Sir Charles Baskerville has died on the moor near Baskerville Hall — apparently from a heart attack, but with an expression of horror on his face and the enormous footprints of a spectral hound nearby. Holmes sends Watson to investigate while he pursues other business in London, and the novel alternates between Watson’s moor diary and Holmes’s eventual arrival. The Gothic atmosphere — the ancient curse, the treacherous bogs, the spectral hound — gives the novel a quality none of the other Holmes works quite achieve.
The Essential Short Story Collections
A Study in Scarlet (1887)
The first appearance of Holmes and Watson — introduced to each other by a mutual friend, taking rooms at 221B Baker Street, and immediately engaged in a murder investigation. The novel is structurally awkward (it interrupts the mystery for a long flashback to Mormon Utah that many readers find tedious), but it is essential as the origin and contains the first appearance of Holmes’s methods: the violin, the pipe, the cocaine, the deductions from observation that Watson consistently underestimates.
The Sign of Four (1890)
The second Holmes novel — a mystery involving a stolen treasure, a small wooden-legged man, a blow-pipe, and the river Thames — is more unified than A Study in Scarlet and provides Watson with his future wife. The novel introduced the systematic description of Holmes’s method (including his use of cocaine, which Watson disapproves of throughout) and established the template for the later novels.
Complete Holmes Canon in Order
Novels
| Title | Year | Note |
|---|---|---|
| A Study in Scarlet | 1887 | First Holmes novel |
| The Sign of Four | 1890 | Second novel |
| The Hound of the Baskervilles | 1902 | Best novel; essential |
| The Valley of Fear | 1915 | Fourth novel |
Short Story Collections
| Title | Year | Note |
|---|---|---|
| The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes | 1892 | Best collection; start here |
| The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes | 1894 | Includes “The Final Problem” |
| The Return of Sherlock Holmes | 1905 | After Holmes’s “death” |
| His Last Bow | 1917 | WWI; Holmes in retirement |
| The Case-Book of Sherlock Holmes | 1927 | Final collection; uneven |
Reading Order Recommendations
New to Holmes: The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes → The Hound of the Baskervilles → The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes.
Publication order: A Study in Scarlet → The Sign of Four → The Adventures → The Memoirs → Hound of the Baskervilles → The Return → His Last Bow → The Valley of Fear → The Case-Book.
Best stories only: The Adventures → The Memoirs → The Hound of the Baskervilles. The core of what makes Holmes essential.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the best order to read Sherlock Holmes?
Publication order is the most common and generally the best approach: A Study in Scarlet → The Sign of Four → The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes → The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes → The Hound of the Baskervilles → The Return of Sherlock Holmes → His Last Bow → The Valley of Fear → The Case-Book of Sherlock Holmes. Most readers find that starting with the short story collections (The Adventures and The Memoirs) rather than the novels works well — the stories are Doyle's finest work in the Holmes genre, and the collections give you the character at his peak without requiring commitment to a full novel.
What is the best Sherlock Holmes story?
The Hound of the Baskervilles is the most celebrated full-length Holmes novel — a Gothic mystery set on Dartmoor, with a legendary supernatural dog, a vanishing baronet, and atmospheric landscape that makes it the most effective of the four Holmes novels. For short stories, 'A Scandal in Bohemia' (the first story in The Adventures) introduced Irene Adler and established the template for Holmes's relationship with women; 'The Final Problem' (in The Memoirs) is Doyle's attempt to kill Holmes at Reichenbach Falls; 'The Adventure of the Speckled Band' is voted the finest individual Holmes story in most polls.
Did Conan Doyle like Sherlock Holmes?
Doyle had a complicated relationship with his most famous creation. He initially found the Holmes stories a distraction from the historical fiction he considered his serious work; by 1893 he was sufficiently tired of the character to kill him off in 'The Final Problem.' The public reaction was so extreme — readers cancelled their Strand Magazine subscriptions and wore black armbands — that Doyle eventually brought Holmes back in 1903 with 'The Adventure of the Empty House.' He continued writing Holmes stories until 1927, though his personal enthusiasm for the character never recovered its initial energy.
How many Sherlock Holmes stories are there?
Conan Doyle wrote sixty Sherlock Holmes stories: four novels (A Study in Scarlet, The Sign of Four, The Hound of the Baskervilles, The Valley of Fear) and fifty-six short stories, collected in five volumes (The Adventures, The Memoirs, The Return, His Last Bow, and The Case-Book). The stories were published between 1887 and 1927 — across forty years, which explains the variation in quality and the evolution of Holmes's character across the canon.
