Where to start Sherlock Holmes
Start Sherlock Holmes with A Study in Scarlet. The Hound of the Baskervilles is famous and later. It is not book one.
Short answer
A Study in Scarlet
It is the first Holmes novel and the meeting of Holmes and Watson. Do not start with Hound because it is the famous one. Do not start with a Horowitz pastiche because the spine says Sherlock.
The canon is nine books
Four novels and fifty-six shorts in five collections. Publication order of those nine is the first-read path: A Study in Scarlet, The Sign of the Four, Adventures, Memoirs, then Hound, then the return.
Hound and The Valley of Fear are set earlier than their publication dates. They were still issued to people who already knew Holmes. Chronology is a later hobby, not a first-read tool.
If you only want one novel after the meeting, Hound is the usual second visit — after you already know who Holmes is.
What is not the door
Pastiches, BBC Sherlock, and “complete Sherlock” omnibuses that lead with a modern novel are other shelves. Doyle’s Case-Book is the last canon collection. You do not owe a pastiche.
A first visit can be Study, Adventures, and Hound. That is an introduction, not a claim that the other six books are fake.
The full publication table
Novels, collections, the chronological trap, and labeled optional later books sit on the Sherlock Holmes reading-order guide. This page is only where to start.
FAQ
Is Hound a prequel?
It is set earlier than its publication. Read it fifth, or after you already know Holmes. Do not read it first.
Do I have to read every short?
For “the canon,” eventually. For a first visit, no.
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