Army surgeon invalided home from Afghanistan who becomes Sherlock Holmes's companion, lodger, and chronicler. Steady, decent, and possessed of considerable courage, he serves as both the practical counterweight to Holmes's eccentricity and the reader's point of entry into a world that would otherwise be entirely alien. Narrator of the overwhelming majority of the canonical stories.

The world's only consulting detective, operating from 221B Baker Street, London. Possessed of extraordinary powers of observation and deductive reasoning, he applies a rigorous scientific method to criminal investigation while remaining largely indifferent to conventional social expectations. Capable of brilliant warmth and profound coldness in equal measure, his partnership with Dr Watson is the central relationship of the canon.

An American criminal whose pursuit of a woman from his past brings violence to a quiet Norfolk farm in The Adventure of the Dancing Men. His use of a coded message system based on stick figures dancing - the dancing men of the title - gives Holmes one of his most celebrated cryptographic challenges. Dangerous and entirely without scruple about pursuing what he considers his by prior claim.

Former Colonel of the First Bangalore Pioneers and big game hunter, described by Holmes as the second most dangerous man in London after Moriarty. Chief of staff to Moriarty's criminal organisation. Appears in The Adventure of the Empty House.

A former Professor of Mathematics turned criminal mastermind, described by Holmes as the Napoleon of Crime - the organising intelligence behind much of London's serious criminality. Appears directly in only a handful of stories but casts a shadow across the later canon.

A Norfolk squire of old family who comes to Holmes with a curious problem - a series of stick figure drawings appearing on his property that have thrown his American wife into a state of terror she refuses to explain. Straightforward, decent, and entirely out of his depth in the situation his wife's past has brought to his door. Appears in The Adventure of the Dancing Men only.

A young and promising Scotland Yard inspector whom Holmes regards as one of the best of the official force. Appears across several cases in The Return of Sherlock Holmes, where he frequently brings difficult cases to Holmes while remaining open to methods that his more senior colleagues would dismiss. Represents a younger, more adaptable face of official detection.

Scotland Yard's most prominent inspector in the canon and Holmes's most frequent professional contact within the official police. Tenacious and not without competence, but habitually out of his depth on the cases that matter most, he represents the institutional approach to detection that Holmes consistently outpaces. His relationship with Holmes evolves from grudging tolerance to genuine respect across the canon.

Landlady of 221B Baker Street and the domestic anchor of Holmes's unconventional household. Tolerates her tenant's erratic hours, dangerous visitors, and destructive experiments with remarkable equanimity. More resilient and resourceful than her role suggests, she is a constant presence across the canon without ever being its focus.

Sherlock Holmes's elder brother, possessed of even greater powers of observation and deduction but entirely lacking his sibling's energy or inclination to act on them. A founding member of the Diogenes Club and a figure of considerable, deliberately vague importance within the British government - Holmes suggests at one point that Mycroft occasionally is the British government. Appears rarely but significantly.