These are three of my favorites, too. I’d add *The Adventure of the Abbey Grange *to the list - it’s a great example of what makes Holmes Holmes.
Silver Blaze is excellent, and it gave us the curious incident of the dog in the night-time.
Finally, The Yellow Face is something of a clunker for me, but it does offer two of the greatest lines in the entire Holmes canon, in my opinion, and they come within a couple of paragraphs of each other at the end.
From a pure story standpoint, nothing tops The Hound of the Baskervilles.
“The Yellow Face”, although not one of the best stories, has a wonderful ending; although I’ve read it numerous times, I just looked it up on the internet and got all misty again.
“Valley of Fear” is just dull. It’s the only Holmes story that I never bothered to finish.
“Hound of the Baskervilles” has it all; evocative setting, Watson doing his best, beautiful woman acting mysteriously, supernatural beast–obviously the best of the stories.
Since the OP didn’t restrict this thread to Arthur Conan Doyle stories, I’d like to recommend all of the Nicholas Meyer stories, ‘Exit Sherlock Holmes’ by Robert Lee Hall, and ‘The Mandala of Sherlock Holmes’ by Jamyang Norbu.
I think “Silver Blaze” is one of the best short stories I’ve ever read.
I also really like “A Scandal in Bohemia,” “The Adventure of Charles Augustus Milverton,” "The Adventure of the Bruce-Parrington Plans, “The Adventure of the Priory School,” and “The Adventure of the Naval Treaty.” Hope I got the titles right, it’s been a while since I read Doyle.
Of the novels *The Hound of the Baskervilles *is the only good one, although I do like the second half of The Valley of Fear.
Oh, well if we’re legitimately allowed to include non-Doyle stories, The Final Solution by Michael Chabon zooms to the top of my mind. Although it’s status as a Holmes story is deliberately vague.
I looked at the summary and wondered why you said it was seen as a ‘bit of an embarassment’?
Considering that decades later Doyle intervened in the George Edalji case (thereby providing the motivation for the Court of Appeal), he obviously was familiar with the brutal racial prejudice of his times. That he could write a story dealing with this prejudice, particularly in a country where deep seated anti-jewish and anti-catholic sentiments even against people of the same race, much less people of different races extended well into the 60’s is astonishingly broad minded for the time. May I point out that even after WWII through the 70s, the English government routinely discriminated against people of color as a matter of policy, even if they held British citizenship. For example, the British government forcibly deported thousands of shipyard and dockworkers solely because of their race, leaving their mainly white wives and mixed race children without support.
Or did you mean the story was unrealistic and sentimental? Maybe he was doing a Wilkie Collins.
I adore “Hound of the Baskervilles,” and will always treasure reading it and re-reading it.
But… I hold it to be a superb adventure story, yet a bit of a failure as far as a “Holmes” story. It opens so well, with the analysis of the walking stick. But that’s pretty much the end of his detective skills. Ultimately, he does almost no further deduction. Half the book, Holmes isn’t even there. Watson wanders around making observations. (And does quite well, actually!)
For me, the most grievous sin of the book is at the ending, where Holmes uses Baskerville as bait. Very ham-fisted. (And Lestrade comes off poorly, doesn’t he!)
Holmes mismanages things pretty badly, and never really seizes the initiative. Ultimately, he only wins by dint of firepower, not of reasoning.
I love the book…but suggest it has too many flaws to be the greatest story in the canon.
When I read, I see the story in my mind. They are not words on a page for me but images and because of that my favorite is also “The Red-headed League.” I can see all those red-headed guys lined up for the interview. It is a wonderful image. As are the three men in the vault and the man copying in long hand all by himself.
I also enjoy for no good reason “The Engineer’s Thumb.”
And there I was thinking that I was the only person who’d read that. Or possibly dreamt it.
Along similar lines, don’t forget All-consuming Fre.
Seriously, if I had to pick a favorite (not the best, by any stretch), it would would actually be A Study in Scarlet…just for the off-the-wall second half. Mind you, I also enjoy the poetry of Valerius “gimme back my napkin” Catullus.
