Sherlock Holmes (pron-en???rl?k ?ho?mz) is a fictional character of the late 19th and early 20th centuries who first appeared in publication in 1887. He was the creation of Scottish author and physician Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. A brilliant London-based "consulting detective", Holmes is famous for his intellectual prowess (intelligence) and is renowned for his enormous scope of observation, his astute logical reasoning and his forensic science skills to solve difficult cases (legal case).

Conan Doyle wrote four novels and 56 short stories featuring Holmes. The first story, A Study in Scarlet, appeared in Beetons Christmas Annual in 1887 and the second, The Sign of the Four, in Lippincotts Monthly Magazine in 1890. The character grew tremendously in popularity with the beginning of the first series of short stories in The Strand Magazine (Strand Magazine) in 1891; further series of short stories and two serialised (Serial (literature)) novels appeared until 1927. The stories cover a period from around 1880 up to 1907, with a final case in 1914.

All but four stories are narrated by Holmess friend and biographer, Dr. John H. Watson (John Watson (Sherlock Holmes)); two are narrated by Holmes himself ("The Blanched Soldier (The Adventure of the Blanched Soldier)" and "The Lions Mane") and two others are written in the third person ("The Mazarin Stone" and "His Last Bow (His Last Bow (story))"). In two stories ("The Musgrave Ritual" and "The Gloria Scott (The Adventure of the Gloria Scott)"), Holmes tells Watson the main story from his memories, while Watson becomes the narrator of the frame story. The first novel, A Study in Scarlet, includes a long interval of omniscient narration recounting events unknown both to Holmes and to Watson.

Conan Doyle said that the character of Holmes was inspired by Dr. Joseph Bell (Joseph Bell), for whom Doyle had worked as a clerk at the Edinburgh Royal Infirmary. Like Holmes, Bell was noted for drawing large conclusions from the smallest observations.