How best to read the various tales of Sherlock Holmes? The most obvious answer to that question is: the order in which they were written and published, beginning with A Study in Scarlet. However, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, the first literary agent for Dr. John H. Watson, did not publish the stories in a strict chronologic order, with many stories told primarily as flashbacks. Therefore, for the reader, either new to these wondrous tales or seeking to read them all again, I present the following option. By following this list, the reader is able to see for themselves the maturation of Holmes and Watson, from relatively young lads with all of London at their fingertips, to the mature gentlemen reflecting upon a lifetime of adventure.

I generally follow the dating laid out by the great Sherlockian editor Leslie S. Klinger in his masterwork, The New Annotated Sherlock Holmes (2005-6), which is itself a consensus of other Sherlockians, who often followed but the vaguest of clues in the stories themselves in order to come to their conclusions. Dr. Watson, for all his excellent qualities, was never his best with dates. For the sake of vanity, this literary agent interjects the timing for those stories which I have been so fortunate as to unearth and publish.

(1852: Watson born)

(1854: Holmes born)

1874: The Gloria Scott

1879: The Musgrave Ritual

1880: The Isle of Devils

1881: A Study in Scarlet

1883: The Speckled Band

1883: The Monstrous Blood

1884: The Gate of Gold

1886: The Beryl Coronet

1887: The Resident Patient

1887: The Reigate Squires

1887: The Five Orange Pips

1888: The Red Leech

1888: The Valley of Fear

1888: The Noble Bachelor

1888: The Yellow Face

1888: The Greek Interpreter

1888: The Sign of Four

1888: Silver Blaze

1888: The Cardboard Box

1889: The Crooked Man

1889: A Scandal in Bohemia

1889: The Man with a Twisted Lip

1889: A Case of Identity

1889: The Fateful Malady

1889: The Boscombe Valley Mystery

1889: The Stockbroker’s Clerk

1889: The Naval Treaty

1889: The Engineer’s Thumb

1889: Hound of the Baskervilles^

1889: The Blue Carbuncle

1890: The Red-Headed League

1890: The Copper Beeches

1890: The Dying Detective

1890: The Spanish Sovereign

1891: The Final Problem

1894: The Empty House

1894: The Second Stain%

1894: The Golden Pince-Nez

1894: The Norwood Builder

1894: The Manufactured Miracle

1895: Wisteria Lodge

1895: The Three Students

1895: The Solitary Cyclist

1895: Black Peter

1895: The Bruce-Partington Plans

1895: The First Star

1896: The Veiled Lodger

1896: The Sussex Vampire

1896: The Missing Three-Quarter

1897: The Abbey Grange

1897: The Devil’s Foot

1898: The Dancing Men

1899: The Retired Colourman

1899: Charles Augustus Milverton

1900: The Six Napoleons

1901: The Priory School

1901: The Disappearance of Lady Frances Carfax

1901: Thor Bridge

1902: Shoscombe Old Place

1902: The Three Garridebs

1902: Three Gables

1902: The Illustrious Client

1902: The Red Circle

1903: The Blanched Solider*

1903: The Mazarin Stone

1903: The Creeping Man

1907: The Lion’s Mane*

1909: The Pharaoh’s Curse (The Assassination of Sherlock Holmes)

1909: Threadneedle Street (The Assassination of Sherlock Holmes)

1909: Falling Curtain (The Assassination of Sherlock Holmes)

1914: His Last Bow

1918: The Grand Gift of Sherlock

^ The dating of The Hound of the Baskervilles is the most difficult of the entire Canon, such that Klinger devotes an entire Appendix to the controversy. I have picked the date with what appears to be the most evidence behind it, accepting that it is at best a flimsy theory.

% The dating of The Second Stain is one of the most controversial of the entire Canon. Watson himself deliberately attempts to obscure the date: “It was, then, in a year, and even in a decade, that shall be nameless, that upon one Tuesday afternoon in autumn we found two visitors…”

* Dr. Watson sadly makes no appearance.