The Birth of the Detective
Poe invented it in 1841. Collins built it into a novel in 1868. Conan Doyle made it immortal. Read in order, you can watch the detective genre being invented in real time. Listen free on HearCandy.
Murders in the Rue Morgue
1841. The first detective story. Poe invented the brilliant eccentric, the bumbling authorities, and the locked room. Every mystery novel written since owes this one.
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The Moonstone
1868. The first detective novel. Collins introduced multiple narrators, the unreliable witness, and the detective solving a crime committed in a trance. Massively influential.
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The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes
Where the legend begins. Twelve stories introducing the world’s most famous detective and Watson. The first collection and still the best introduction.
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The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes
The second Holmes collection, ending with the famous confrontation at Reichenbach Falls. Conan Doyle tried to kill his detective — the public wouldn’t let him.
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The Hound of the Baskervilles
The best Sherlock Holmes novel. A supernatural curse, a family under threat, and Holmes operating at his most dramatic. Perfect.
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The Return of Sherlock Holmes
The public demanded his return. Holmes explains how he survived and goes back to work in thirteen more cases, including some of his finest work.
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The Mystery of the Yellow Room
Leroux wrote this before Phantom of the Opera. A perfect locked-room mystery and the debut of reporter-detective Rouletabille — one of the great forgotten detective stories.
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The Innocence of Father Brown
A priest-detective who solves crimes through intuition and theology rather than logic. These twelve stories influenced Agatha Christie and Jorge Luis Borges.
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