"A Scandal in
Bohemia" and "His Last Bow" are the beginning and the end. The latter
appropriately refers back to the former.
"The Final Problem" and "The Empty
House" are the middle: the "death" and return.
"The Greek Interpreter," set
before the "death," introduces Mycroft Holmes. "The Bruce-Partington Plans," set
after the return, explains Mycroft's role in the Government.
"His Last Bow" is a
return from the retirement that is announced in "The Second Stain" and described
in "The Lion's Mane."
Therefore, I think these eight are the
minimum. "The Bruce-Partington Plans" and "The Second Stain" name certain
foreign agents working in London. This links these stories directly to each
other and indirectly to "His Last Bow" in which Holmes and Watson apprehend Von
Bork who is as significant in international espionage as Moriarty was in
national crime.
I would also include "The Red-headed
League" and "The Naval Treaty." John Clay, who is behind the Red-headed League
hoax, is high in London crime which means that Holmes must be well on the road
to identifying Moriarty. At least two dramatizations have retroactively linked
Moriarty to the Red-headed League. Holmes says that Clay is "the fourth smartest
man in London." The three smartest must be Moriarty, Mycroft and Sherlock
although Doyle was probably not thinking that when he wrote this story.
"The
Naval Treaty," coming between "The Greek Interpreter" and "The Final Problem,"
is a third story about an important stolen document and thus fits in with "The
Bruce-Partington Plans" and "The Second Stain."
If we include the novels, then we must
include them all. Holmes and Watson meet in A Study in Scarlet. Watson
marries in The Sign of Four, thus explaining why he is not living at
Baker Street in many of the stories starting with "A Scandal in Bohemia." The
Valley of Fear, set before "The Final Problem," features a criminal gang
who, although they are brought to justice, engage Moriarty to exact their
revenge. Finally, The Hound of the Baskervilles, perhaps the novel
that has been most often filmed, cannot be left out of any list of Holmes
stories.
