Michael Dirda's Book Recommendations (Updated for 2026)

1

The Complete Sherlock Holmes (Collection of all his adventures, 9 Volumes in one Book)

Arthur Conan Doyle

4.5

All 4 Novels & 56 Short Stories of the Sherlock Holmes Canon (including "The Case-Book of Sherlock Holmes") with More Than 480 Illustrations by Sidney Paget & Others

The Complete Sherlock Holmes (Illustrated) from Top Five Classics is the only fully illustrated, single-volume edition of the entire Sherlock Holmes Canon available, and features:

• All 4 novels and 56 short stories, including Arthur

Recommended by Andrew Lees, Douglas Starr, and Michael Dirda.

Michael Dirda

It really has a superbly eerie atmosphere. Most Sherlockians, if they had to pick just one story to represent the canon, would choose this one. [source]

Andrew Lees

It is often claimed that Holmes is the epitome of the rational, cold-blooded scientist but, in fact, most of his crimes are solved by backing his hunches and a fair amount of guesswork. [source]

Douglas Starr

In a world beset by uncertainty and chaos and fear, it’s comforting to imagine there is someone out there who, with keen intelligence and a scientific method, can put things back in order, and make the world safe again. I think that’s part of Holmes’s enduring appeal. [source]

Cover unavailable

2

The Hound of the Baskervilles

Sir Arthur Conan Doyle and Anne Perry

4.3

We owe The Hound of the Baskervilles (1902) to Arthur Conan Doyle's good friend Fletcher "Bobbles" Robinson, who took him to visit some scary English moors and prehistoric ruins, and told him marvelous local legends about escaped prisoners and a 17th-century aristocrat who fell afoul of the family dog. Doyle transmogrified the legend: generations ago, a hound of hell tore out the throat of devilis

Recommended by Michael Dirda and Peter James.

Michael Dirda

Holmes turns to Mortimer and says, A man’s or a woman’s? and Mortimer delivers the greatest reply in 20th century literature, Mr Holmes, they were the footprints of a gigantic hound! I shivered with pleasure and realised that life didn’t get much better than that. [source]

Peter James

It actually scared me the first time I read it as a kid. And I have always liked it. It is my favourite of all his books and it has a very clever ending. [source]

3

A Study in Scarlet

Arthur Conan Doyle

4.3

"A Study in Scarlet" is the first published story of one of the most famous literary detectives of all time, Sherlock Holmes. Here Dr. Watson, who has just returned from a war in Afghanistan, meets Sherlock Holmes for the first time when they become flat-mates at the famous 221 B Baker Street. In "A Study in Scarlet" Sherlock Holmes investigates a murder at Lauriston Gardens as Dr. Watson tags alo

Recommended by Michael Dirda.

Michael Dirda

If you’ve never read any Sherlock Holmes books you really need to start with that one because it introduces this rather mysterious and romantic character. At the beginning, Doctor Watson tries to puzzle out the profession of his strange roommate at 221b Baker Street. He makes lists of what Holmes seems to know a lot about and what he doesn’t seem to know about at all – including the Copernican theory. In short, this is an introduction to a partnership and friendship that will be chronicled over 56 short stories and four novels. [source]

Cover unavailable

4

The Lost World (Professor Challenger, #1)

Arthur Conan Doyle, Michael Crichton

4.2

It's London, 1907. Journalist Edward Malone, rejected by the woman he loves because he is too prosaic, decides to go in search of adventure and fame to prove himself worthy of her. Soon after, he meets Professor George Challenger, a scientist who claims to have discovered a 'lost world' populated by pterodactyls and other prehistoric monsters.

Recommended by Michael Dirda.

Michael Dirda

One of the aims of my little book On Conan Doyle is to urge people to explore Conan Doyle’s many wonderful non-Sherlockian works. Certainly the one that most people should start with is The Lost World. It introduces Professor George Edward Challenger, a self-important but wonderfully funny and committed scientist who discovers a plateau in a South American jungle where dinosaurs still roam the earth. This is based on some actual historical explorations that were going on at the time. The novel obviously inspired Jurassic Park. It is one of the great classic versions of a lost civilisation. [source]

Cover unavailable

5

Arthur Conan Doyle: A Life in Letters

Jon L. Lellenberg, Daniel Stashower, Charles Foley

4.3

More than seventy-five years after his death, the famed creator of Sherlock Holmes, Arthur Conan Doyle, remains one of the world's best-loved authors. This candid, never-before-published volume of letters sheds light on Conan Doyle's fascinating career, not only as an author but as a physician, sportsman, war correspondent and crusader for social justice. From his troubled marriage to his controve

Recommended by Michael Dirda.

Michael Dirda

Particularly after he became famous, Conan Doyle thought of himself as a public intellectual and he wrote many letters to The Times protesting about atrocities in the Belgian Congo, arguing for divorce law reform, and trying to right the wrongs of people unjustly incarcerated. Arthur and George, Julian Barnes’s novel previous to his Booker Prize winner, was about Arthur Conan Doyle in one of these cases. [source]