The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes

These are the twelve stories that made Sherlock Holmes a legend: a king blackmailed by the incomparable Irene Adler, a pawnbroker paid handsomely to copy the encyclopedia, a bride who vanishes from her own wedding breakfast, a whistle heard in the night in a locked country bedroom. Each case begins with a stranger climbing the stairs to 221B Baker Street and ends with Holmes making the impossible look obvious.

Conan Doyle perfected the short mystery here, and the format is ideal for listening. Each story is a self-contained forty-odd minutes of setup and investigation and payoff, narrated by the ever-loyal Dr. Watson. If you've never actually read Holmes, start here. The originals are faster and funnier and stranger than any adaptation.

At roughly 101,300 words, The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes runs about 11½ hours at 1x narration speed. That figure is an estimate based on a typical narration pace. The exact length depends on the voice and the playback speed you choose.

The edition linked here is available from Project Gutenberg under its US public-domain listing. Check the edition, translation, completeness and copyright rules where you live. LoudReader lets you browse and download Gutenberg books; they are not all stored on installation. To listen:

1. Install LoudReader on iPhone or iPad, or its iPad app on a compatible Apple Silicon Mac.
2. Search for “The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes” in the built-in catalog and add it to your library.
3. Press play. A natural offline voice reads the book while each word highlights on screen, and your place is saved between sessions.

Speech is generated locally without uploading the book for narration. Download the book and check your chosen voice before travelling offline. Available voices depend on your device; check the in-app voice list. Try every available voice for your first 8 hours of listening. Afterwards, keep a free English voice selection and unlimited book listening. No LoudReader account or word quota.