Sherlock Holmes can turn cigar ash, a muddy boot, and one oddly behaved dog into a case-ending revelation.
These Sherlock Holmes trivia questions make Arthur Conan Doyle's original stories the core, with television and film adaptations labeled separately.
Holmes and Watson in the Original Canon
Begin with the detective, the doctor, and the partnership that anchors four novels and 56 short stories.
- Who created Sherlock Holmes?
Answer: Arthur Conan Doyle - Who narrates most Holmes stories?
Answer: Dr. John H. Watson - What is Watson's profession?
Answer: Physician and former army surgeon - In which war was Watson wounded?
Answer: The Second Anglo-Afghan War - Where is Watson wounded in A Study in Scarlet?
Answer: His shoulder, though The Sign of Four later says his leg - What profession does Holmes call himself?
Answer: Consulting detective - What instrument does Holmes play?
Answer: The violin - What martial art does Holmes say he used against Moriarty?
Answer: Baritsu - What drug does Holmes inject in The Sign of Four?
Answer: A seven-percent solution of cocaine - What does Watson call Holmes's occasional drug use?
Answer: A dangerous habit he disapproves of - How many novels are in the original Holmes canon?
Answer: Four - How many short stories are in the original canon?
Answer: 56 - What collective term often refers to those 60 works?
Answer: The Sherlock Holmes canon - Who is Holmes's older brother?
Answer: Mycroft Holmes - What government-related talent does Holmes attribute to Mycroft?
Answer: Extraordinary observation and knowledge, sometimes making him the British government
221B Baker Street and Familiar Faces
Step inside the rooms, then meet the landlady, inspectors, irregulars, and one woman Holmes never underestimates.
- What is Holmes and Watson's famous address?
Answer: 221B Baker Street - In which city is Baker Street?
Answer: London - Who is their landlady?
Answer: Mrs. Hudson - What street boy group sometimes assists Holmes?
Answer: The Baker Street Irregulars - Who leads the Irregulars in A Study in Scarlet?
Answer: Wiggins - Which Scotland Yard inspector appears in A Study in Scarlet?
Answer: Inspector Lestrade - Which other inspector competes with Lestrade in that novel?
Answer: Inspector Tobias Gregson - Which woman outwits Holmes in A Scandal in Bohemia?
Answer: Irene Adler - What respectful phrase does Holmes use for Irene Adler?
Answer: The woman - Who is Irene Adler's royal former admirer?
Answer: The King of Bohemia - What club does Mycroft frequent?
Answer: The Diogenes Club - Which Scotland Yard inspector investigates in The Adventure of the Norwood Builder?
Answer: Inspector Lestrade - What dog helps Holmes test a scent trail in The Sign of Four?
Answer: Toby - What is the name of Watson's wife introduced through The Sign of Four?
Answer: Mary Morstan - Which inspector becomes a friend and ally in later stories?
Answer: Inspector Stanley Hopkins
The Four Sherlock Holmes Novels
These longer cases range from a London murder to a moorland legend and a secret society in America.
- What is the first Sherlock Holmes novel?
Answer: A Study in Scarlet - In what year was A Study in Scarlet first published?
Answer: 1887 - Who introduces Watson to Holmes in A Study in Scarlet?
Answer: Stamford - Where do Holmes and Watson first meet?
Answer: The laboratory at St Bartholomew's Hospital - What word is written on the wall at the Lauriston Gardens crime scene?
Answer: RACHE - What is the second Holmes novel?
Answer: The Sign of Four - Who brings the case in The Sign of Four?
Answer: Mary Morstan - What treasure drives The Sign of Four?
Answer: The Agra treasure - What is the third Holmes novel?
Answer: The Hound of the Baskervilles - On what moor is Baskerville Hall located?
Answer: Dartmoor - Who is the heir Holmes and Watson protect in The Hound of the Baskervilles?
Answer: Sir Henry Baskerville - What natural feature helps conceal danger on the moor?
Answer: The Grimpen Mire - What is the fourth Holmes novel?
Answer: The Valley of Fear - What secret society appears in the American backstory of The Valley of Fear?
Answer: The Scowrers - Which criminal mastermind's shadow hangs over The Valley of Fear?
Answer: Professor Moriarty
The Adventures and the Memoirs
This round covers early short-story collections, including royal scandals, strange jobs, and the Reichenbach confrontation.
- What is the first story in The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes?
Answer: A Scandal in Bohemia - Which story features a mysterious copyists' club?
Answer: The Red-Headed League - Who appears as Duncan Ross and hires Jabez Wilson into the Red-Headed League?
Answer: John Clay's accomplice Archie - Which story concerns a missing bridegroom named Hosmer Angel?
Answer: A Case of Identity - Which story features orange seeds sent as warnings?
Answer: The Five Orange Pips - Which story begins with the theft of a blue gemstone?
Answer: The Blue Carbuncle - Where is the blue carbuncle found?
Answer: Inside a Christmas goose - Which story features a banker's entrusted jewel?
Answer: The Beryl Coronet - Which story gives the collection its spotted title clue?
Answer: The Speckled Band - Who is the villain in The Speckled Band?
Answer: Dr. Grimesby Roylott - What is the speckled band?
Answer: A venomous snake - Which Memoirs story features an interpreter forced to translate for a captive Greek man?
Answer: The Greek Interpreter - Which story introduces Professor Moriarty?
Answer: The Final Problem - At what waterfall do Holmes and Moriarty struggle?
Answer: Reichenbach Falls - In which country are Reichenbach Falls?
Answer: Switzerland
The Return and Later Casebooks
Holmes survives, London gets its detective back, and the cases grow stranger without leaving the original texts.
- In which story does Holmes return after his apparent death?
Answer: The Adventure of the Empty House - What identity does Holmes use while disguised as an old bookseller?
Answer: He poses as an unnamed elderly bibliophile - Who is the marksman in The Empty House?
Answer: Colonel Sebastian Moran - What unusual busts are smashed in The Six Napoleons?
Answer: Plaster busts of Napoleon - Which story features the coded messages of dancing stick figures?
Answer: The Dancing Men - What animal gives Silver Blaze its title?
Answer: A racehorse - What famous clue involves a dog doing nothing in the nighttime?
Answer: The dog that did not bark in Silver Blaze - Which story features a young woman cycling past a mysterious follower?
Answer: The Solitary Cyclist - Which story concerns the disappearance of a rugby player?
Answer: The Missing Three-Quarter - Which story features a man with a dramatically altered face and an opium den?
Answer: The Man with the Twisted Lip - Which story involves a stolen naval document of enormous importance?
Answer: The Second Stain - Which story features a giant jellyfish-like marine creature?
Answer: The Lion's Mane - Which Holmes-narrated story concerns a missing soldier with a mysterious skin condition?
Answer: The Blanched Soldier - Which story has Holmes retire to keep bees?
Answer: His Last Bow mentions his beekeeping retirement - Which collection is the final Sherlock Holmes story collection?
Answer: The Case-Book of Sherlock Holmes
Villains, Clients, and Curious Problems
Match memorable figures and objects to cases without letting Moriarty take credit for every criminal plot.
- What is Professor Moriarty's academic title?
Answer: Professor of mathematics - What book does Holmes say Moriarty wrote?
Answer: The Dynamics of an Asteroid - Who is Moriarty's sharpshooting lieutenant?
Answer: Colonel Sebastian Moran - Which blackmailer is the villain of Charles Augustus Milverton?
Answer: Charles Augustus Milverton - What does Milverton collect to extort victims?
Answer: Compromising letters and documents - What American organization is represented by the initials K.K.K. in The Five Orange Pips?
Answer: The Ku Klux Klan - Which case features the criminal John Clay?
Answer: The Red-Headed League - Which case features the villain Culverton Smith?
Answer: The Dying Detective - Which case features the criminal Baron Gruner?
Answer: The Illustrious Client - What object does Holmes seek from Baron Gruner?
Answer: A book recording his affairs and crimes - Which case features the escaped convict Selden?
Answer: The Hound of the Baskervilles - Who is Stapleton's supposed sister?
Answer: Beryl Stapleton, actually his wife - Which novel features Birdy Edwards and the Vermissa Valley?
Answer: The Valley of Fear - What Irish-American identity does Holmes use while undercover in His Last Bow?
Answer: Altamont - What object hides a photograph in A Scandal in Bohemia?
Answer: A sliding panel in Irene Adler's sitting room
Observation, Deduction, and Victorian London
Holmes's methods mix keen observation, specialized knowledge, experiments, disguise, and rapid inference.
- What does Holmes infer from Watson's pocket watch in The Sign of Four?
Answer: Details about Watson's late brother's troubled life - What reference subject does Holmes study in A Study in Scarlet?
Answer: Cigar and tobacco ash - What laboratory test does Holmes claim to invent?
Answer: A test for hemoglobin or blood stains - What does Holmes use disguises for?
Answer: Surveillance, infiltration, and interviewing without recognition - What phrase does Holmes actually use more often than the famous 'Elementary, my dear Watson'?
Answer: Elementary appears, but the full famous phrase does not occur in the canon - Does 'Elementary, my dear Watson' appear exactly in Conan Doyle's original stories?
Answer: No - What is Holmes's 'brain attic' idea?
Answer: Knowledge should be selected and organized like items in an attic - Which London station serves trains toward Dartmoor in The Hound of the Baskervilles?
Answer: Paddington Station - What newspaper often carries personal advertisements useful to cases?
Answer: The Daily Telegraph and other papers appear - What kind of cab is common in Holmes's London?
Answer: A hansom cab - Where does Holmes store tobacco in a famously odd place?
Answer: In the toe of a Persian slipper - Where does Holmes keep unanswered correspondence?
Answer: Affixed to the mantelpiece with a jackknife - How does Holmes summon the Baker Street Irregulars?
Answer: Through Wiggins - What chemical science does Holmes know particularly well?
Answer: Chemistry - What does Holmes value over guesswork?
Answer: Data and evidence
Conan Doyle, Stage, Film, and Television
Finish by labeling adaptations clearly and separating later catchphrases and props from the original canon.
- What was Arthur Conan Doyle's profession before literary fame?
Answer: Physician - Which real Edinburgh professor helped inspire Holmes's methods?
Answer: Dr. Joseph Bell - Which magazine serialized many Holmes short stories?
Answer: The Strand Magazine - Who illustrated many Strand Holmes stories?
Answer: Sidney Paget - Did Paget's famous deerstalker come directly from Conan Doyle's text?
Answer: No, it was popularized by illustration - Which actor's stage portrayal helped popularize the curved calabash pipe?
Answer: William Gillette - Which actor played Holmes in fourteen films released from 1939 to 1946?
Answer: Basil Rathbone - Who played Watson opposite Basil Rathbone?
Answer: Nigel Bruce - Which actor starred in Granada Television's Holmes series beginning in 1984?
Answer: Jeremy Brett - Who played Holmes in the 2009 film directed by Guy Ritchie?
Answer: Robert Downey Jr. - Who played Watson in that 2009 film?
Answer: Jude Law - Which actor plays Holmes in the BBC series Sherlock?
Answer: Benedict Cumberbatch - Who plays John Watson in BBC's Sherlock?
Answer: Martin Freeman - In what era is BBC's Sherlock primarily set?
Answer: Contemporary London - Which U.S. series casts Jonny Lee Miller as Holmes and Lucy Liu as Joan Watson?
Answer: Elementary
Keep the game going with London trivia, train trivia, movie trivia, and Shakespeare trivia.
Sources and Further Reading
- British Library: Arthur Conan Doyle
- Project Gutenberg: Arthur Conan Doyle
- The Sherlock Holmes Society of London
- BFI Sherlock Holmes collections
- Encyclopaedia Britannica: Sherlock Holmes
Ellie Ewert is the founder and author of RandomTrivia.co, blending her passion for research with years of experience in content creation to deliver accurate, engaging, and well-sourced trivia. Dedicated to providing readers with trustworthy and entertaining facts, she applies meticulous fact-checking and SEO expertise to ensure every article meets the highest standards. Read more about our high standards in our Editorial Guidelines.