In Arthur Conan Doyle’s Sherlock Holmes canon, which story is Holmes’s first published appearance?

Arthur Conan Doyle’s Sherlock Holmes first appeared in the 1887 novel A Study in Scarlet.

The story introduces Holmes and Dr. John Watson, who meet in London and become roommates at 221B Baker Street. Watson narrates the investigation into the murder of Enoch Drebber, whose body is discovered in an empty house with the word “RACHE” written nearby.

A Study in Scarlet was published in Beeton’s Christmas Annual in 1887 and later appeared as a book. Its title refers to the case as a “study in scarlet,” meaning that Holmes is examining a crime marked by bloodshed.

Readers sometimes identify The Sign of the Four as the first Holmes novel because it was the second Holmes book and helped establish the character’s popularity. The Hound of the Baskervilles was published much later, in 1902, after Doyle had temporarily ended the main series.