You’d think it would be simple. You pick up a book, you read it, you move to the next. But Arthur Conan Doyle didn't make it easy for us. He wrote these stories over four decades, jumping back and forth through time like a man possessed. If you try to read the Sherlock Holmes books in chronological order based on when they were published, you’re going to get whiplash. One minute Holmes is a retired bee-keeper in Sussex, and the next, he’s a young chemistry student meeting Watson for the first time in a cold London hospital lab.
It’s a mess. A glorious, Victorian mess.
Most people just grab the "Complete Works" and start at page one. That’s fine if you want the publication order. But if you want to see the detective grow from a brilliant, arrogant youth into a mellowed elder statesman of crime-solving, you need a different map. We're talking about the "internal" timeline—the order in which the events actually happened in Holmes’s life.
The messy reality of the Holmes timeline
Let’s be real: Doyle was notoriously bad with dates. He’d forget what year it was, where Watson’s war wound was located (was it the shoulder or the leg?), and even the name of Watson's wife. Fans—who call themselves Sherlockians or Holmesians—have spent over a century trying to fix these errors. They treat the stories like real historical documents.
They call it "The Game."
If you want to follow the Sherlock Holmes books in chronological order, you have to look past the copyright dates. The very first story published was A Study in Scarlet (1887), but it isn't the earliest event in Holmes's life. To find the beginning, you have to dig into the short stories where Holmes reminisces about his "college days."
The Early Days (Pre-Watson)
Before John Watson showed up, Sherlock was a bit of a loner. He was honing his craft. If you’re reading for the timeline, you start with "The Gloria Scott" and "The Musgrave Ritual." Both are found in The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes.
In "The Gloria Scott," we see Holmes as a university student. It’s basically his origin story. An old man dies of fright, a secret from the past comes back to haunt a friend’s father, and Holmes realizes that his weird knack for observation could actually be a career. Then comes "The Musgrave Ritual," which Holmes tells Watson about years later over a pipe. It features a weird ancient chant and a buried secret. It’s Holmes before he had the polished edges.
Meeting Watson and the Baker Street Years
Now we hit the meat of the series. This is where most people start, and honestly, it’s where the magic begins.
🔗 Read more: Blink-182 Mark Hoppus: What Most People Get Wrong About His 2026 Comeback
A Study in Scarlet: This is the big one. 1881. Watson is back from the Afghan War, broke and looking for a roommate. They meet at St. Bartholomew’s Hospital. "You have been in Afghanistan, I perceive." Total classic.
The Sign of Four: Set around 1888. This one is famous for two reasons: the 7% solution of cocaine (Holmes was bored) and Watson falling in love with Mary Morstan. It’s a fast-paced thriller involving stolen Indian treasure and a wooden-legged man.
The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes: This isn't a novel; it's the first collection of short stories. Chronologically, most of these happen between 1888 and 1890. You get "A Scandal in Bohemia" here, featuring Irene Adler. She’s the only person to really outsmart him.
The Great Hiatus and the Hounds
Here is where the Sherlock Holmes books in chronological order get really tricky. Doyle got sick of his creation. He wanted to write "serious" historical novels, so he pushed Holmes off a cliff in 1893.
But the public went nuts.
The Hound of the Baskervilles is widely considered the best mystery novel ever written. Doyle wrote it in 1901, after he had already "killed" Holmes in the short story "The Final Problem." However, the book is a flashback. It takes place around 1889, before the deadly encounter at the Reichenbach Falls. If you're reading chronologically, you read Hound while Holmes is still "alive" in the first half of his career.
Then comes the "Return."
After ten years of fan outrage, Doyle brought him back in The Return of Sherlock Holmes. He explained that Holmes hadn't died at the waterfall; he’d just been traveling the world (the "Great Hiatus") to avoid his enemies. This collection marks the second phase of his career, roughly 1894 to 1901.
💡 You might also like: Why Grand Funk’s Bad Time is Secretly the Best Pop Song of the 1970s
The Later Years and Retirement
As the 20th century rolled in, the tone of the stories changed. The Victorian fog was lifting, and the world was getting grittier.
- The Valley of Fear: Published late (1914), but set earlier (around 1888). It’s a weird one—half detective story in England, half Pinkerton-style thriller in the United States.
- His Last Bow: These stories are set closer to the end. The title story, "His Last Bow," takes place in 1914 on the eve of World War I. Holmes is an old man, working as a secret agent to trick the Germans. It’s surprisingly patriotic and a bit bittersweet.
- The Case-Book of Sherlock Holmes: The final collection. Some of these stories are... weird. Doyle was getting into spiritualism, and you can sort of feel the shift in energy. Chronologically, these are scattered, but many take place in the early 1900s.
Why the order actually matters
You might ask, "Does it really change anything?"
Kind of.
When you read the Sherlock Holmes books in chronological order, you notice the relationship between Holmes and Watson shift. In the early books, Watson is terrified of Holmes’s erratic behavior. By the end, they are like an old married couple. Watson starts to tease Holmes. Holmes starts to show actual, genuine emotion toward Watson—especially in "The Adventure of the Three Garridebs" when Watson gets shot, and Holmes nearly has a breakdown.
If you read in publication order, those emotional beats feel random. Chronologically, they feel earned.
A quick "cheat sheet" for your shelf
If you want to arrange your books right now, here is the basic flow of the narrative life of Sherlock Holmes, rather than the order Doyle wrote them:
- The Early Cases: "The Gloria Scott" and "The Musgrave Ritual" (found in Memoirs).
- The Partnership Begins: A Study in Scarlet.
- The Golden Age: The Sign of Four, The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, The Hound of the Baskervilles.
- The "Death": "The Final Problem" (found in Memoirs).
- The Return: The Return of Sherlock Holmes.
- The Twilight Years: The Valley of Fear, His Last Bow, The Case-Book of Sherlock Holmes.
Don't ignore the "Apocrypha"
Doyle wasn't the only one writing him. Once the copyright started to lapse (and even before), other people jumped in. But if you want to stay "Canonical," you stick to the 56 short stories and 4 novels written by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle.
Everything else is just fan fiction. Some of it is great (like Nicholas Meyer’s The Seven-Per-Cent Solution), but it’s not the "true" Holmes.
📖 Related: Why La Mera Mera Radio is Actually Dominating Local Airwaves Right Now
One thing that surprises people is how short the books actually are. A Study in Scarlet is barely 100 pages. You can burn through the whole canon in a month if you're dedicated. Just don't expect the dates to make sense. You’ll find stories that claim to happen in 1887 that mention events from 1889. Honestly, just lean into it. The inconsistencies are part of the charm.
Actionable steps for your reading journey
If you're ready to dive in, don't just buy a random collection.
First, get an annotated edition if you can find one. Leslie S. Klinger’s The New Annotated Sherlock Holmes is the gold standard. It explains all the Victorian slang and the historical context that we miss today.
Second, start with A Study in Scarlet. Even if you want to be a chronological purist, you need that foundation of how the duo met. It sets the stage for everything else.
Third, keep a notebook. Or at least a mental one. Part of the fun of reading the Sherlock Holmes books in chronological order is trying to spot the errors Doyle made. It makes you feel like a detective yourself.
Finally, don't rush to the end. The later stories in The Case-Book are often criticized, but they show a more human, albeit stranger, version of the detective. Once you finish "His Last Bow," you’ve reached the end of an era—the death of the Victorian age and the birth of the modern world.
Grab a copy of A Study in Scarlet tonight. Turn off your phone. Imagine the London fog pressing against the window of 221B Baker Street. The game is afoot.
Next Steps for the Sherlockian Reader:
- Verify the Edition: Ensure your collection includes all 56 short stories; some "Complete" editions strangely omit The Case-Book.
- Map the Geography: Use a Victorian London map (available in many digital archives) to track Holmes's movements through the city as you read.
- Contextualize the Science: Research the real-life forensic techniques of the 1880s to see just how far ahead of his time Doyle’s character actually was.