Best Arthur Conan Doyle Audiobooks
Arthur Conan Doyle didn't invent the detective story, but he perfected it. Sherlock Holmes — first introduced in A Study in Scarlet and brought to his gothic peak in The Hound of the Baskervilles — remains the template against which every fictional detective is still measured. Doyle's prose is brisk and atmospheric, his mysteries built on deductive logic so precisely laid out that the solutions feel both inevitable and surprising. What's often underappreciated is the range: beyond Holmes, Doyle wrote genuinely unsettling horror, and his Vampire Stories show a darker, more visceral imagination at work. Holmes himself is a creation of almost mythological staying power — cold, brilliant, deeply strange — and readers who love a detective with a genuine inner life keep coming back. For anyone who wants their mysteries intelligent and their atmosphere thick, Doyle is the original.
Where to Start with Arthur Conan Doyle
- Best entry point → The complete Sherlock Holmes
- Best standalone → Sherlock
- Start the Sherlock Holmes series → Sherlock Holmes: The Definitive Collection
- What fans keep coming back to → A Study in Scarlet
- Best narrator for Arthur Conan Doyle → Sherlock Holmes Investigates: The Hound of the Baskervilles
- Highest rated by listeners → The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes (Sherlock Holmes #4)
Best Arthur Conan Doyle Audiobooks
- 1
Sherlock Holmes: The Definitive Collection
Sherlock Holmes • Book 1
by Arthur Conan Doyle, Stephen Fry - introductions
Narrated by Stephen Fry
★ 4.96 ABR Score (239.5K ratings)★ 4.51 Goodreads (217.9K) ★ 4.84 Audible (21.6K)More about this pick
Fry's voicing is perfect, but his personal introductions as a devoted Holmes fanatic make this the only way to listen to the complete canon.
- 2
The complete Sherlock Holmes
Sherlock Holmes #1-9
Narrated by Simon Vance
★ 4.81 ABR Score (226.9K ratings)★ 4.51 Goodreads (217.8K) ★ 4.74 Audible (9.0K)More about this pick
Victorian London's greatest detective solves impossible crimes through pure deductive reasoning and careful observation. This complete collection showcases Doyle's genius for puzzle-plotting and the iconic Holmes-Watson partnership across four novels and fifty-six short stories.
- 3
The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes
Sherlock Holmes • Book 4
Narrated by Simon Prebble
★ 4.33 ABR Score (106.7K ratings)★ 4.29 Goodreads (106.3K) ★ 4.59 Audible (388)More about this pick
Conan Doyle's collection includes some of Holmes's most ingenious cases, from locked-room mysteries to elaborate revenge schemes. Simon Prebble's performance captures the Victorian atmosphere while keeping each story's unique puzzle clear.
- 4
The Hound of the Baskervilles
Sherlock Holmes • Book 5
by Arthur Conan Doyle, Akash Chauhan
Narrated by Simon Prebble
★ 4.17 ABR Score (393.1K ratings)★ 4.14 Goodreads (392.2K) ★ 4.36 Audible (873)More about this pick
A supernatural hound supposedly kills the Baskerville heir on the fog-shrouded Devon moors. Simon Prebble's crisp Victorian delivery suits this atmospheric tale where Holmes confronts his most legendary case.
- 5
A Study in Scarlet
Sherlock Holmes • Book 1
Narrated by Simon Vance
★ 4.16 ABR Score (499.1K ratings)★ 4.13 Goodreads (499.1K) ★ 4.63 Audible (73)More about this pick
The first Sherlock Holmes mystery introduces the world's most famous detective through Dr. Watson's eyes. Simon Prebble's performance captures Holmes's analytical brilliance and Watson's loyal bewilderment.
- 6
The Valley of Fear
Sherlock Holmes • Book 7
Narrated by Simon Prebble
★ 4.02 ABR Score (56.4K ratings)★ 3.96 Goodreads (56.2K) ★ 4.46 Audible (158)More about this pick
Prebble's atmospheric reading guides listeners from English country houses to American coal mining towns, capturing both Holmes's deductive brilliance and the story's dual-timeline structure.
- 7
Sherlock
by Arthur Conan Doyle, Mark Gatiss, Steven Moffat
Narrated by Simon Vance, Mark Gatiss
★ 3.89 ABR Score (491 ratings)★ 4.33 Goodreads (457) ★ 4.85 Audible (34)More about this pick
Moffat and Gatiss curate nineteen essential Holmes stories that inspired their BBC series, from first case to final bow. Simon Vance's crisp delivery paired with Gatiss's insider perspective creates an ideal bridge between classic Doyle and modern adaptation.
- 8
Sherlock Holmes in A Scandal in Bohemia (The Works of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle Book 4)
The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes • Book 1
Narrated by Mark Young
★ 3.87 ABR Score (12.7K ratings)★ 3.83 Goodreads (12.7K)More about this pick
Holmes meets his match in Irene Adler, the only woman to ever outwit the great detective. Mark Young's crisp Victorian delivery captures both Holmes's arrogance and his grudging respect for "the woman."
- 9
The Man with the Twisted Lip - a Sherlock Holmes Short Story
The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes • Book 6
by Arthur Conan Doyle, Edward Raleigh
Narrated by Saethon Williams
★ 3.81 ABR Score (7.3K ratings)★ 3.81 Goodreads (7.3K)More about this pick
Holmes and Watson's chance encounter in a seedy opium den launches this twisty case about missing husbands and mysterious identities.
- 10
Sherlock Holmes Investigates: The Hound of the Baskervilles
Sherlock Holmes • Book 5
Narrated by Simon Vance
★ 3.79 ABR Score (206 ratings)★ 3.95 Goodreads (63) ★ 4.52 Audible (143)More about this pick
Vance's measured delivery suits the moor's menacing atmosphere as Holmes unravels supernatural terror through cold logic and keen observation.
- 11
The Phantom Coach: A Connoisseur's Collection of Victorian Ghost Stories (The Connoisseur's Collections)
by Michael Sims, Elizabeth Gaskell, Amelia B. Edwards, Charles Dickens, Arthur Conan Doyle, Henry James, Robert W. Chambers, Mrs. Oliphant, W.W. Jacobs, Mary Eleanor Wilkins Freeman, Rudyard Kipling, Ambrose Bierce, W.F. Harvey
Narrated by Matthew Waterson
★ 3.65 ABR Score (408 ratings)★ 3.73 Goodreads (295) ★ 4.13 Audible (113)More about this pick
Twelve Victorian ghost stories capturing the era's distinct supernatural dread, from Dickens to Kipling. Matthew Waterson's measured delivery suits the period's formal prose perfectly.
- 12
Fangs
Vampire Archives • Book 2
by Otto Penzler, Kim Newman, Clive Barker, Anne Rice, Arthur Conan Doyle, Erik Davies
Narrated by Peter Altschuler, Scott Brick, Susan Denaker, Susan Duerden, Stephen Hoye, Carrington MacDuffie, Robin Sachs, Simon Vance, Bob Walter, Steve West
★ 3.62 ABR Score (228 ratings)★ 3.78 Goodreads (160) ★ 4.09 Audible (68)More about this pick
Vampire anthology featuring Clive Barker, Anne Rice, and Arthur Conan Doyle gets atmospheric treatment from a full cast including Robin Sachs and Simon Vance.
- 13
H. P. Lovecraft's Book of the Supernatural
by Stephen Jones, Henry James, Washington Irving, Edgar Allan Poe, Rudyard Kipling, Bram Stoker, Robert Louis Stevenson, Guy de Maupassant, Ambrose Bierce, Arthur Conan Doyle, Davina Porter, Steven Crossley, Bronson Pinchot
Narrated by Davina Porter, Steven Crossley, Bronson Pinchot
★ 3.60 ABR Score (477 ratings)★ 3.68 Goodreads (339) ★ 3.99 Audible (138)More about this pick
Three skilled narrators present Lovecraft's influential 1927 horror essay alongside the classic stories he championed. The collection traces supernatural literature's evolution from Gothic novels through contemporary masters.
- 14
Vampire Stories
by Arthur Conan Doyle, Robert Eighteen-Bisang, Martin H. Greenberg
Narrated by Steven Menasche
★ 3.47 ABR Score (603 ratings)★ 3.55 Goodreads (492) ★ 3.65 Audible (111)More about this pick
Conan Doyle trades deduction for bloodsucking horror in tales ranging from carnivorous plants to vampiric spouses. Steven Menasche navigates the Victorian gothic atmosphere of these lesser-known supernatural works.