The first Sherlock Holmes story appeared in 1887, and included the name of a color in the title. What was it?

Before he became a global icon of the silver screen, the world's most famous consulting detective made his debut in an 1887 novella by Arthur Conan Doyle. This inaugural adventure, which introduces Sherlock Holmes and his faithful companion Dr. John Watson, was titled A Study in Scarlet. It was first published in a magazine called Beeton's Christmas Annual and marked the first time readers were welcomed to the iconic 221B Baker Street address.

The title's color isn't a reference to a piece of clothing or a room's decor, but rather a powerful metaphor for the crime at the heart of the story. Holmes himself explains his philosophy to Watson, describing the investigation as his "study in scarlet." He famously states, "There’s the scarlet thread of murder running through the colourless skein of life, and our duty is to unravel it, and isolate it, and expose every inch of it." This line perfectly encapsulates the detective's unique, almost artistic approach to solving crimes.

While the story was not an immediate sensation, it laid the essential groundwork for a literary and cinematic empire. It established the Holmes-Watson dynamic, the science of deduction, and the gritty London setting that would be adapted for the screen countless times over the next century, making the "scarlet thread" of that first case a permanent part of popular culture.