Created by British author Sir Arthur Conan Doyle

First appeared in A Study in Scarlet, published in Beeton’s Christmas Annual of 1887.

Generally considered milestones in the field of crime fiction

Lived at 221b Baker Street between 1881-1904

As the world’s first and only “consulting detective”

Details of Sherlock Holmes's life in Conan Doyle's stories are scarce and often vague.

A statement of Holmes's age in "His Last Bow" places his year of birth at 1854

His parents are not mentioned, although Holmes mentions that his "ancestors" were "country squires".

In "The Adventure of the Greek Interpreter", he claims that his grandmother was sister to the French artist Vernet, without clarifying whether this was Claude Joseph, Carle, or Horace Vernet.

Holmes's brother Mycroft, seven years his senior, is a government official. Mycroft has a unique civil service position as a kind of human database for all aspects of government policy. Sherlock describes his brother as the more intelligent of the two, but notes that Mycroft lacks any interest in physical investigation, preferring to spend his time at the Diogenes Club.

Holmes says that he first developed his methods of deduction as an undergraduate; his earliest cases, which he pursued as an amateur, came from fellow university students. A meeting with a classmate's father led him to adopt detection as a profession.

Financial difficulties lead Holmes and Dr. Watson to share rooms together at 221B Baker Street, London.

Their residence is maintained by their landlady, Mrs. Hudson.

Holmes works as a detective for twenty-three years, with Watson assisting him for seventeen of those years.

Most of the stories are frame narratives written from Watson's point of view, as summaries of the detective's most interesting cases. Holmes frequently calls Watson's records of Holmes's cases sensational and populist, suggesting that they fail to accurately and objectively report the "science" of his craft.

Holmes's friendship with Watson is his most significant relationship. When Watson is injured by a bullet, although the wound turns out to be "quite superficial", Watson is moved by Holmes's reaction

Basil Rathbone

Peter Cushing

Jeremy Brett

Robert Downey, Jr.

Benedict Cumberbatch

Jonny Lee Miller

As Conan Doyle wrote to Joseph Bell, "Holmes is as inhuman as a Babbage's calculating machine and just about as likely to fall in love".

Irene Adler

Watson describes Holmes as "bohemian" in his habits and lifestyle.

Said to have a "cat-like" love of personal cleanliness, at the same time Holmes is an eccentric with no regard for contemporary standards of tidiness or good order.

While Holmes can be dispassionate and cold, during an investigation he is animated and excitable.

He has a flair for showmanship, often keeping his methods and evidence hidden until the last possible moment so as to impress observers).

Except for that of Watson, Holmes avoids casual company.

The detective goes without food at times of intense intellectual activity, believing that "the faculties become refined when you starve them."

At times Holmes relaxes with music, either playing the violin, or enjoying the works of composers such as Wagner and Pablo de Sarasate.

Holmes occasionally uses addictive drugs, especially in the absence of stimulating cases.

Holmes is known to charge clients for his expenses and claim any reward offered for a problem's solution

In His Last Bow, the reader is told that Holmes has retired to a small farm on the Sussex Downs and taken up beekeeping as his primary occupation.

The move is not dated precisely, but can be presumed to be no later than 1904 (since it is referred to retrospectively in "The Adventure of the Second Stain", first published that year).

The story features Holmes and Watson coming out of retirement to aid the British war effort. Only one other adventure, "The Adventure of the Lion's Mane", takes place during the detective's retirement.

The first set of Holmes stories was published between 1887 and 1893. Conan Doyle killed off Holmes in a final battle with the criminal mastermind Professor James Moriarty in "The Final Problem" (published 1893, but set in 1891).

Legend has it that Londoners were so distraught upon hearing the news of Holmes's death that they wore black armbands in mourning, though there is no known contemporary source for this; the earliest known reference to such events comes from 1949.

After resisting public pressure for eight years, Conan Doyle wrote The Hound of the Baskervilles (serialised in 1901–02, with an implicit setting before Holmes's death).

In 1903, Conan Doyle wrote "The Adventure of the Empty House"; set in 1894, Holmes reappears, explaining to a stunned Watson that he had faked his death to fool his enemies.Following "The Adventure of the Empty House", Conan Doyle would sporadically write new Holmes stories until 1927.