Sherlock Holmes: The World’s Greatest Detective 

“When you have eliminated all which is impossible, then whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth.” ~ Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, The Case-Book of Sherlock Holmes.

Crime stories fascinate people and Sherlock Holmes is perhaps one of the most fascinating and well-known modern mastermind detective in human history. Holmes is so incredibly famous that people thought that the story of Sherlock Holmes is based on a real detective and based on real crime cases. His crime-solving journey was followed by millions of people and his existence as well as legacy had transcended through generations.

Sherlock Holmes is, in reality, a fictional character created by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle who first appeared in publication in “A Study in Scarlet” in 1887. More than a hundred years later this charismatic figure remains prominent in our popular culture as Sherlock Holmes’ hashtags on TikTok alone had amassed a total of 1.9B views to date. Conan Doyle’s first collection of Sherlock Holmes short stories sold more than 60 million copies worldwide. This iconic and phenomenal character continues to live on in our life as it turned into musical plays and theaters, movie franchises, popular tv series with a cult-like following, translated and published into various languages, adapted into video game series, remade and republished into graphic novels and even turn into manga series (Japanese comic series).

Sherlock Holmes is widely known for his sharp intellect and for being an exceptional observer, possessing deductive skills like no other, and very charismatic yet eccentric consulting detective. These are among few aspects that allowed Sherlock Holmes’s reputation to evolve and grow with the times. The complexity of Sherlock’s character balances brainpower with fascinating quirks and becomes an identity of its own. The legacy of Sherlock Holmes continues to live through the countless characters it has inspired such as Fox Mulder from The X-Files, Gregory House from House M.D., L from Death Note, and DC Comics most iconic superhero; Batman.

Evidently, Sherlock Holmes has blurred the line between reality and fiction. Through A Study in Scarlet (1887), Holmes became one of the first detectives (fictional or otherwise) to use chemistry, toxicology, blood stains, and ballistics to solve crimes, all of which contributed to real-life advances in criminal investigation, forensic investigation as well as criminology. In fact, in 1910, Holmes even inspired Dr. Edmond Locard who is the pioneer of modern forensic science, to build the world’s first crime laboratory. Dr. Edmond Locard published a paper in 1922 (Paris) under the title of "Policiers de Romains et Policiers de Laboratoire," which attaches considerable importance to the influence of the Holmes stories on modern scientific crime detection. Locard also points out that the specialists in the field found considerable interest in the Sherlock Holmes tales.

Sir Arthur Conan Doyle through his creation of Sherlock Holmes definitely had a significant impact and influence on modern criminal investigation and forensic science. For instance, Sherlock Holmes already used scientific methods to catch offenders during his era when criminal investigation relied heavily on eyewitness testimony. As stated earlier, Holmes was the first to use ballistics as evidence in criminal cases. Forensic ballistics involves the examination of evidence from firearms that may have been used in a crime. Additionally, long before modern toxicologists developed sophisticated tests for chemical analysis, Holmes was already using scientific methods to detect the presence of poisons. Another notable example was the fact that Sherlock Holmes used fingerprints as a means of criminal identification ahead of his time. He was in fact, had ignored the Bertillon system of identification through photographs and eleven (11) specific bodily measurements which was the leading identification system at that time. Then, around the turn of the century, fingerprint identification began to replace the Bertillon system and has now superseded it throughout the world.

Sherlock Holmes is a literary figure that has withstood time. Even after hundreds of years, his presence and influence are still very much alive in our modern society. His legacy had inspired so many scholars, scientists, detectives, law enforcers, legal practitioners and avid crime stories fans alike to explore, understand and research about crime, its victims, and the perpetrator.

Written by: Norashikin Othman