Whenever I read a Sherlock Holmes story, I feel as if I’m back in high school. It was one of my favorite books back then, and I would read the stories again and again even though I knew already who did what. In fact, one of the highlights of my London trip two years ago was going to the Sherlock Holmes museum at 221B Baker Street. (Special thanks to Dave B who went with me to the museum so that I could have my picture taken beside each of the exhibits.)

I distinctly remember writing an essay for a seventh-grade English project on my favorite Sherlock Holmes stories. I don’t have a copy of that essay anymore, but I still pretty much remember which my top 3 favorites were back then. I re-read the entire collection a few weeks ago and tried to come up with a new list of my current favorites, but it seems that the same stories are still my favorites. Here they are:

#1 The Adventure of the Speckled Band. I remember that this was also #1 in my seventh-grade list, and I recently f
ound out that it was also #1 on Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s list of favorite Sherlock Holmes stories. I guess that tells you something if the author himself likes the story so much.

I love this story because the drama builds up slowly. You keep thinking something bad is going to happen, but like Watson (the narrator), you’re kept in the dark the whole time. And then after all the quiet waiting with bated breath, the speckled band comes out and strikes the criminal dead.

#2 The Adventure of the Devil’s Foot, which I know was either #2 or #3 in my seventh-grade list. This was also in Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s list, although it’s at #9.

I love this story because it’s scary. You keep thinking that it’s impossible to have a supernatural solution to the mystery. This is a detective story after all! But the facts won’t add up any way you look at it that you’re forced to think that maybe the devil was behind the deaths and insanity of the family.

#3 The Adventure of the Dancing Men, which I remember was either #3 or #2 in my seventh-grade list. This is also on the author’s list at #3.

The idea that the drawings of the dancing men were being used as codes actually occurred to me when I first read it. That’s part of the reason why this became a favorite of mine – because it was one of the first ones where I could at least partly guess what would happen in the end.

To read my favorite Sherlock Holmes quotes, please click here.