What did Sherlock Holmes do?

Answer 1

1. Holmes invites his client to tell his story "omitting no detail, however slight."

2. He goes to the scene of the crime and looks around for clues, such as footprints, cigar ashes, displaced objects, dust patterns (in "Black Peter", Holmes noted that a rectangular object had been removed from a shelf because he noticed a dust free patch on the shelf.)

3. He asks questions and interviews people he believes have some interest in the case (the victim's or suspect's family, employers, landladies). Sometimes he gets Watson or one of the street kids to do the legwork.

4. He analyzes the data he has found, trying to put it into a pattern. In other words, he thinks. He usually smokes his pipe during that time, and asks Watson to keep silent or come back later.

5. He tries out his conclusions, confronts the villain and closes the case.

Answer 2

The fictional Sherlock Holmes was the world's first Consulting Detective (self-avowed).

Answer 3

Consulting detective. When the police were in over their heads they came to him. As he describes, he's the "only one in the world", because he invented the job.

Answer 4

world's first consultive detective