Sherlock Holmes remains one of the most iconic characters in popular media today. With his keen intellect, observation skills, and unparalleled deduction, Sherlock Holmes has often solved the unsolvable and often catches perpetrators even before they can try to bluff their way out of trouble. As such, it makes sense for some game creators to translate some of his best mysteries into their own games.
With Frogwares having just released Sherlock Holmes Chapter One, fans of the iconic detective may want to look back to some of his best mysteries. It's worth giving these stories a read to experience the thrill in Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s iconic works.
10 A Study In Scarlet
Fans new to the Sherlock Holmes fandom would fit right in with “A Study In Scarlet,” particularly because this is where Sherlock Holmes’ adventures begin. This story introduces readers to Holmes, an amateur detective, settling with his new roommate Dr. John Watson. Readers will immediately warm to Dr. Watson's jolly nature, which makes him an immediately relatable character compared to the cool, calculating nature of Holmes (sometimes mistaken for annoyance or arrogance).
Scotland Yard investigator Lestrade ropes Holmes — and therefore readers — into a curious case. There was a murder in an abandoned house, with only the writing “Rache” on the wall serving as a clue. It’s in this story that Holmes impresses readers with his keen inductive reasoning skills. He somehow manages to catch criminals through deduction, and not necessarily due to their mistakes.
9 The Final Problem
When it comes to Sherlock Holmes stories, no fan could ever forget about his nemesis, Professor James Moriarty. However, it might surprise fans to know that Moriarty only became a central character in “The Final Problem,” in which Holmes praises Moriarty’s skills as a philosopher and an abstract thinker. Unfortunately, Moriarty is notorious for leading a gang of criminals, and Holmes has come very close to tracking him down.
Until, of course, Moriarty himself discovers that Holmes is in his tale. In this story of suspense, Holmes and Watson suddenly find themselves hunted. Moriarty will stop at nothing to eliminate them, fighting Holmes with logic and puzzles. No story ever comes close to matching this battle of wits.
8 A Scandal In Bohemia
“A Scandal in Bohemia” tells of Sherlock Holmes’s attempts to stop quite a scandal on the eve of the King of Bohemia’s marriage. Apparently, in his younger days, the King of Bohemia had an affair with Irene Adler, an American opera singer. At some point, the King sent her a large picture of them together. The King knows that, should Irene wish to, she could use the photo to shame the King and his pious wife. Thus, Holmes was hired to get the photograph from Adler.
At first, Holmes underestimates Adler, thinking she’s gullible enough to be tricked into giving him the photograph. However, Adler seems to have outsmarted Holmes to some degree. In this game of cat and mouse, readers are kept in suspense as to who exactly gets the scandalous photograph.
7 The Adventure Of The Norwood Builder
Following Conan Doyle’s convention of trying to find something new in the cases he brings, Sherlock Holmes has to work his way backwards in “The Adventure of the Norwood Builder.” Lawyer John McFarlane comes to Holmes, knowing he’s going to be charged for murder later in the day. As he explains, a client has made him the sole beneficiary of their will the day before. Later that day, the same client was found bludgeoned to death.
With McFarlane in custody, Holmes has to prove McFarlane’s innocence with whatever clues were still left. This odd approach is certainly new for Sherlock’s skills, and quite the entertaining ride for readers who want to see how Holmes will solve this new formula for cases.
6 The Red-Headed League
Just because Sherlock Holmes is a detective doesn’t mean he’s only there to solve murders. Such was proven with “The Red-Headed League,” where Conan Doyle explores the bizarre. Jabez Wilson, known for his flaming red hair, answers a mysterious job advertisement that sought red-headed men in sound body and mind to do “nondescript” but well-paying jobs. Nothing else is known about the employers, except by the moniker “The Red-Headed League.”
When Wilson gets accepted, he is tasked to copy the encyclopedia. And after finishing the A's, he’s surprised to learn that the Red-Headed League has apparently dissolved. Just what is going on? Wilson approaches Holmes for consultation, and the detective manages to solve the odd mystery behind this group.
5 The Adventure Of The Copper Breeches
With the many Sherlock Holmes stories out there, readers would be bound to find something up their alley. Such is the case of “The Adventure of the Copper Breeches,” which is without a doubt one of the weirder Sherlock Holmes stories out there.
The story begins with quite a simple premise. The charming yet eccentric Ms. Violet Hunter visits Sherlock Holmes and hires him as a nanny with quite the pay. The job requires Holmes to do some odd things, such as cutting her hair or even wearing strange clothes. When things at home get too strange to handle, Holmes uncovers a mystery that becomes surprisingly much weirder compared to Hunter herself.
4 The Hound Of The Baskervilles
In "The Hound Of The Baskervilles,” Conan Doyle finally manages to bring Sherlock Holmes into a big case. It’s no longer a short story, but rather a full novel where he can fully exercise the detective’s faculties against the seemingly-unsolvable.
Holmes is invited to solve the mystery of the death of Sir Charles Baskerville, whose body was found near his manor with no clear signs of a cause of death. Aside from the look of sheer horror on the victim's face and the legend of a hound that targets Baskerville heirs, Holmes hasn’t gotten a lot to work with. Thankfully, Doyle supplies readers with correspondences, journal entries, and firsthand accounts, giving them a crack at solving the murder. Of course, only Sherlock Holmes can truly piece everything together in the end.
3 The Speckled Band
In “The Speckled Band,” marriage itself seems to be the killer as a worried Helen Stoner visits Sherlock Holmes in fear for her life. According to Stoner, her sister, who was about to get married, had died in a mysterious way. Now that Stoner herself is to be married soon, she’s afraid she’ll suffer the same fate. Her only clue towards her sister’s mysterious circumstances are her dying words, “The speckled band!” but she has no idea what the phrase means.
While Holmes tries to piece together the meaning of the mysterious quote, readers are treated to a wide variety of red herrings and clue. There’s equal amounts of mystery and imaginative writing for all kinds of fans.
2 The Dancing Men
Sherlock Holmes meets “The Dancing Men” in the form of Hilton Cubitt of Riding Thorpe Manor, who requests his help. Apparently, Cubitt has married a woman named Elsie Patrick who, for some reason, asked Cubitt never to inquire about her past due to some previous “disagreeable associations.” However, things become awry once certain messages start arriving in their garden, all in the form of dancing stick men that made Elsie extremely uncomfortable.
With nothing but the stick figures as reference, Holmes set out to solve this visual mystery. Arguably one of the more entertaining stories across Doyle’s literary works, fans who want an entertaining mystery can't go wrong with The Dancing Men.
1 The Adventure Of Silver Blaze
During the course of Conan Doyle’s writing of Sherlock Holmes, avid readers would likely come to recognize some patterns or methodologies behind plot lines and clues. Through “The Adventure of Silver Blaze,” Doyle proves knowing such patterns in advance don't make the cases any less fun, and that he’s still got a lot of tricks up his sleeve.
In this story, Holmes is tasked to find SIlver Blaze, a prized horse that is just coming up in the horse race. To make things worse, his trainer has apparently been murdered, and some sheep from a pasture nearby have become lame for some reason. While it’s obvious that these plot lines connect, it’s how Holmes pieces the puzzle together that demonstrates his skills.
Sherlock Holmes Chapter One was released on November 16, 2021 for the PC, PlayStation 4 and Playstation 5, Xbox One and Xbox Series X/S.