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In the 1880s a young doctor with a struggling practice in Southsea wrote a short novel about a consulting detective and sold the complete copyright for £25. A Study in Scarlet appeared in Beeton’s Christmas Annual in 1887, and Arthur Conan Doyle never earned another penny from it. Four years later the Sherlock Holmes stories in The Strand Magazine made him famous, and by 1893 he was tired enough of his detective to throw him over the Reichenbach Falls. Readers would not let Holmes stay dead. Doyle, who rated his historical novels above his detective stories, went on to write 23 novels in all, from medieval adventure to The Lost World, along with more than 200 stories. This guide covers his 12 key books, in order, and where to begin, followed by the complete Sherlock Holmes reading order.
By Lisanne Swart · 12 key books · 1887–1915 · Updated October 2026
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Quick answer
Arthur Conan Doyle wrote four Sherlock Holmes novels and 56 Holmes short stories, collected in five books. The best known are A Study in Scarlet (1887), The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes (1892) and The Hound of the Baskervilles (1902); outside Holmes, The Lost World (1912) is his most famous book. Start with The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes: twelve self-contained cases, the form that made Holmes famous. The complete Holmes order is further down the page.
Where to Start with Arthur Conan Doyle
If you want Holmes at his best
→ The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes (1892) — twelve short cases, including “The Speckled Band”.
If you want one complete Holmes novel
→ The Hound of the Baskervilles (1902) — a family legend, a moor and a hound.
If you want to begin at the beginning
→ A Study in Scarlet (1887) — the night Holmes and Watson meet.
If you want Doyle without Holmes
→ The Lost World (1912) — dinosaurs on a South American plateau.
12 Arthur Conan Doyle Books, in Order
A Study in Scarlet
Dr John Watson, back from Afghanistan, takes rooms with Sherlock Holmes at 221B Baker Street, and the two investigate the murder of Enoch Drebber in an empty house off the Brixton Road, where the word “RACHE” is written on the wall. The second half goes back to Utah to explain the killer’s motive; its portrayal of the Latter-day Saints has long been criticised, and Doyle later admitted it was overstated. It first appeared in Beeton’s Christmas Annual in 1887 and as a book in 1888.
Micah Clarke
Doyle’s first historical novel, set during the Monmouth Rebellion of 1685. Micah grows from boyhood to manhood, joins the rebel army and fights at the Battle of Sedgemoor; the subtitle presents the book as his statement to his three grandchildren.
The Sign of the Four
Commissioned at a London dinner in August 1889 by the American editor Joseph Marshall Stoddart, at which Oscar Wilde agreed to write The Picture of Dorian Gray. Mary Morstan asks Holmes why she has received a pearl every year for six years; the trail leads to a stolen Indian treasure, a murder in a locked room and a chase on the Thames. Watson and Mary become engaged by the end.
The White Company
Set in 1366–67, during the Black Prince’s campaign in Spain. Alleyne Edricson leaves Beaulieu Abbey, becomes squire to the knight Sir Nigel Loring and joins the White Company, a band of English archers. Serialised in The Cornhill Magazine through 1891, it sold out quickly and was widely read until the Second World War; Doyle valued his historical novels above Holmes.
The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes
The first twelve Holmes short stories, published in The Strand Magazine from July 1891 to June 1892. It opens with “A Scandal in Bohemia”, in which Irene Adler outwits Holmes, and includes “The Red-Headed League”, “The Blue Carbuncle” and “The Speckled Band”. The monthly stand-alone story was what made Holmes a popular phenomenon.
The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes
Twelve more stories from the Strand, December 1892 to December 1893. The last, “The Final Problem”, introduces Professor Moriarty and ends with Holmes and Moriarty apparently falling to their deaths at the Reichenbach Falls in Switzerland: Doyle had decided to kill his detective so he could concentrate on other work.
The Exploits of Brigadier Gerard
Comic stories about Étienne Gerard, a brave and hugely vain French brigadier of the Napoleonic Wars. A second collection, The Adventures of Gerard, followed in 1903.
The Hound of the Baskervilles
Holmes’s return, serialised in the Strand from August 1901 and set in 1889, before his “death”. Sir Charles Baskerville is found dead on Dartmoor with the prints of a gigantic hound nearby, and Watson is sent to guard the heir, Sir Henry. The journalist Bertram Fletcher Robinson helped with the legend and received a share of the royalties. More than 20 film and television versions have been made.
The Return of Sherlock Holmes
Thirteen stories from the Strand, October 1903 to December 1904. The first, “The Adventure of the Empty House”, brings Holmes back to London and explains that he faked his death at the Reichenbach Falls.
Sir Nigel
A prequel to The White Company, set earlier in the Hundred Years’ War. The young Nigel Loring vows to perform three noble deeds to win the love of Lady Mary.
The Lost World
The reporter Edward Malone joins the explosive Professor Challenger, the sceptical Professor Summerlee and the adventurer Lord John Roxton on an expedition to a plateau in the Amazon basin where dinosaurs still live. The 1925 silent film helped found the “lost world” genre, and Michael Crichton borrowed the title for his 1995 sequel to Jurassic Park.
The Valley of Fear
The last Holmes novel. A coded warning from an informer inside Moriarty’s organisation comes too late to save John Douglas of Birlstone House. The second half moves to a coal-mining valley in the United States, where a Pinkerton agent infiltrates a murderous gang, loosely based on the Molly Maguires. Serialised in the Strand from September 1914; first published as a book in February 1915.
In What Order to Read Arthur Conan Doyle
Outside Holmes, the only books that follow on from each other are the Professor Challenger stories, which begin with The Lost World, the two Brigadier Gerard collections, and Sir Nigel, a prequel to The White Company written fifteen years later. Read The White Company first; that is the order Doyle wrote them.
For Holmes, read in publication order: four novels and five story collections, listed in full below. Two points matter. Read “The Final Problem”, the last story in The Memoirs, before The Return of Sherlock Holmes, which opens by undoing it. The Hound of the Baskervilles was published after Holmes’s “death” but is set before it, so it can be read at any point.
A reading path
1. The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes (1892)
2. The Hound of the Baskervilles (1902)
3. A Study in Scarlet (1887)
4. The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes (1894)
5. The Lost World (1912)
Every Sherlock Holmes Book in Order, and Everything Else
Beyond the 12 key books: 40 more, grouped by kind.
Open a group with the + to see every book in it.
Sherlock Holmes: the complete reading order
9
9 books · 1887–1927
- 1887A Study in Scarletnovel; Holmes and Watson meet
- 1890The Sign of the Fournovel; Watson meets Mary Morstan
- 1892The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes12 stories, Strand 1891–92
- 1894The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes12 stories, ending with “The Final Problem”
- 1902The Hound of the Baskervillesnovel; set in 1889, before “The Final Problem”
- 1905The Return of Sherlock Holmes13 stories, opening with “The Empty House”
- 1915The Valley of Fearnovel; Moriarty in the background
- 1917His Last Bow7 stories (8 in many editions, with “The Cardboard Box”)
- 1927The Case-Book of Sherlock Holmes12 stories, Strand 1921–27; the last Holmes book
Historical novels
7
7 books · 1889–1906
- 1889Micah Clarkethe Monmouth Rebellion, 1685
- 1891The White Companythe Hundred Years’ War; Sir Nigel Loring
- 1892The Great Shadowthe Napoleonic Wars
- 1893The Refugees“a tale of two continents”
- 1896Rodney Stoneset in Regency England
- 1897Uncle BernacNapoleon’s empire
- 1906Sir Nigelprequel to The White Company
Professor Challenger novels
3
3 books · 1912–1926
- 1912The Lost Worlddinosaurs on a South American plateau
- 1913The Poison Beltthe Earth passes through a belt of poisonous ether
- 1926The Land of Mistthe third Challenger novel
Other novels
9
9 books · 1889–1929
- 1889The Mystery of Cloombera general haunted by his colonial past
- 1890The Firm of Girdlestone“a romance of the unromantic”
- 1892The Doings of Raffles Hawa short novel
- 1893Beyond the City“the idyll of a suburb”
- 1894The Parasitea novella
- 1895The Stark Munro Lettersa novel in letters
- 1898The Tragedy of the Koroskotourists on a Nile steamer
- 1899A Duet, with an Occasional Chorusa short domestic novel
- 1929The Maracot Deepan expedition finds Atlantis
Brigadier Gerard and other story collections
5
5 books · 1890–1922
- 1890The Captain of the Polestarearly tales
- 1894Round the Red Lampstories of medical life
- 1896The Exploits of Brigadier Gerardthe first Gerard collection
- 1903The Adventures of Gerardthe second Gerard collection
- 1922Tales of Terror and Mysteryhorror and crime stories
Non-fiction
7
7 books · 1900–1926
- 1900The Great Boer Warwritten after his service as a volunteer doctor
- 1907Through the Magic Dooressays on the books he loved
- 1909The Crime of the Congoagainst Belgian rule in the Congo Free State
- 1918The New Revelationhis statement of spiritualist belief
- 1922The Coming of the Fairieson the Cottingley photographs
- 1924Memories and Adventuresautobiography
- 1926The History of Spiritualismhis account of the movement
The years · 1859–1930
Quick facts about Arthur Conan Doyle
- Known for
- Creating Sherlock Holmes, the detective whose method of close observation and deduction became the model for the modern fictional detective.
- 1859
- Born at Picardy Place, Edinburgh
- 1893
- Holmes “dies” at the Reichenbach Falls
- 1902
- Knighted; The Hound of the Baskervilles
- 1912
- The Lost World
- 1930
- Dies at Windlesham Manor, Crowborough
- Born
- 22 May 1859, 11 Picardy Place, Edinburgh
- Died
- 7 July 1930, Windlesham Manor, Crowborough, Sussex
- Education
- Medicine at the University of Edinburgh (MB CM 1881, MD 1885)
- Doctor
- Ship’s doctor on a Greenland whaler (1880); practice in Southsea from 1882; volunteer doctor in the Boer War (1900)
- Married
- Louisa Hawkins (1885; she died in 1906); Jean Leckie (1907)
- Honours
- Knighted in 1902
- Causes
- Campaigned for the wrongly convicted George Edalji (1906) and Oscar Slater, whose appeal succeeded in 1928
The red mark is 1887: A Study in Scarlet, the first appearance of Sherlock Holmes and Dr Watson.
How Arthur Conan Doyle Writes: The Doctor’s Method
Doyle trained as a doctor in Edinburgh, and Holmes’s method is a diagnostician’s: read the person in front of you from small physical signs. In 1892 he wrote to his old teacher Joseph Bell, “It is most certainly to you that I owe Sherlock Holmes.” Holmes states the principle in the first story of The Adventures: Watson has often climbed the stairs at Baker Street but cannot say how many steps there are.
The stories are told by Watson, a narrator who knows less than the detective and so can keep the solution back without cheating the reader. Doyle wrote fast and plainly, in the form the Strand wanted: a complete story each month, with the same two characters, rather than a serial a reader could lose track of. Several of the novels split in two, with a long flashback to America or India that explains the crime.
He was just as proud of a different kind of book. The historical novels, from Micah Clarke to Sir Nigel, are long, researched adventure stories about honour and soldiering, and The Lost World applies the same energy to science fiction. His later writing is dominated by spiritualism, which he promoted in books and lecture tours for the rest of his life.
Frequently asked questions about Arthur Conan Doyle’s books
How many books has Arthur Conan Doyle written?
He wrote 23 novels: four Sherlock Holmes novels, seven historical novels, three Professor Challenger novels and nine others, all listed above. He also wrote more than 200 short stories, 56 of them about Holmes and collected in five books, plus poetry, plays and many works of non-fiction. This page’s 12 key books are a selection from all of these.
What are Arthur Conan Doyle’s books in order?
His key books in order are A Study in Scarlet (1887), Micah Clarke (1889), The Sign of the Four (1890), The White Company (1891), The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes (1892), The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes (1894), The Exploits of Brigadier Gerard (1896), The Hound of the Baskervilles (1902), The Return of Sherlock Holmes (1905), Sir Nigel (1906), The Lost World (1912) and The Valley of Fear (1915).
What order should I read the Sherlock Holmes books in?
Publication order: A Study in Scarlet (1887), The Sign of the Four (1890), The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes (1892), The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes (1894), The Hound of the Baskervilles (1902), The Return of Sherlock Holmes (1905), The Valley of Fear (1915), His Last Bow (1917) and The Case-Book of Sherlock Holmes (1927). That is four novels and five story collections, 56 stories in all.
Where should I start with Arthur Conan Doyle?
The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes (1892): twelve self-contained cases, each short enough for one sitting. If you would rather start with a novel, read The Hound of the Baskervilles; for Doyle without Holmes, The Lost World.
What is Arthur Conan Doyle’s most famous book?
The Hound of the Baskervilles (1902) is his most famous single novel; a 1999 poll of Sherlockians ranked it the best of the four Holmes novels, and more than 20 film and television versions have been made. Outside Holmes, his best-known book is The Lost World (1912).
Why did Conan Doyle kill Sherlock Holmes?
He wanted to spend his time on other work, above all his historical novels. In 1891 he told his mother he was thinking of “slaying Holmes”, and in “The Final Problem”, published in December 1893, Holmes and Moriarty go over the Reichenbach Falls. After a public outcry he brought Holmes back, first in The Hound of the Baskervilles (set before his “death”) and then in “The Empty House” (1903).
Who was Sherlock Holmes based on?
Mainly on Joseph Bell, one of Doyle’s teachers at the Edinburgh medical school, who was known for reading patients’ histories from small details. In 1892 Doyle wrote to Bell: “It is most certainly to you that I owe Sherlock Holmes.”
Did Arthur Conan Doyle believe in fairies and spiritualism?
He was a committed spiritualist: he became interested in psychic phenomena in the 1880s, began speaking publicly for spiritualism from 1916, and wrote The New Revelation (1918) and The History of Spiritualism (1926). In The Coming of the Fairies (1922) he backed the Cottingley Fairies photographs, which their makers, Frances Griffiths and Elsie Wright, later admitted were faked. His belief also led to a public falling-out with the escapologist Harry Houdini, who exposed fraudulent mediums.
Why is he called Sir Arthur Conan Doyle?
He was knighted by Edward VII in 1902. Doyle believed it was for his pamphlet The War in South Africa: Its Cause and Conduct (1902), which defended Britain’s part in the Boer War, in which he had served as a volunteer doctor.
What did Arthur Conan Doyle write besides Sherlock Holmes?
Historical novels such as Micah Clarke, The White Company and Sir Nigel; the Professor Challenger books, beginning with The Lost World; the comic Brigadier Gerard stories; tales of horror and medicine; and non-fiction including The Great Boer War (1900), The Crime of the Congo (1909) and his autobiography, Memories and Adventures (1924).
Footnotes
- Arthur Conan Doyle — Wikipedia
- Canon of Sherlock Holmes — Wikipedia
- The Hound of the Baskervilles — Wikipedia
- The Valley of Fear — Wikipedia
- Arthur Conan Doyle: works — The Victorian Web
- The dinner behind The Sign of the Four — Smithsonian Magazine
Bibliography last verified 9 October 2026. Where sources give different first-publication years, this page uses the year in library catalogues or the publisher’s own record.
This list was not put together by a machine.
The notes are all mine,
and the books are all his.
Lisanne x
Written by Lisanne Swart, who has curated reading lists and author guides at lisanneswart.com since 2021.
See more on her personal bookshelf.
“You see, but you do not observe. The distinction is clear.”
— Sherlock Holmes in Arthur Conan Doyle, “A Scandal in Bohemia”, The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes (1892)
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