The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes
Arthur Conan Doyle, 1892.
Before you read: These are detective stories. One story mentions Holmes using a drug. Read them with a grown-up if that will confuse a younger child.
Dr. Watson tells twelve cases he shared with Sherlock Holmes at 221B Baker Street. A king asks for help over a photograph. A pawnbroker’s assistant is hired for no real work. A woman fears a stepfather and a whistle in the night. Holmes looks at mud, scratches, and the thing everyone else ignored. The stories are puzzles first. Watson is the friend who writes them down and sometimes gets the answer wrong on purpose, so the reader can try.
Public-domain text.