The Adventure of the Empty House

"The Adventure of the Empty House", one of the 56 Sherlock Holmes short stories written by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, is one of 13 stories in the cycle collected as The Return of Sherlock Holmes. It was first published in Collier's in the United States on 26 September 1903, and in The Strand Magazine in the United Kingdom in October 1903.

Public pressure compelled Doyle to bring the sleuth back to life, and explain his survival after his deadly struggle with Professor Moriarty at the Reichenbach Falls in "The Final Problem". Doyle had already published, in 1901–1902, The Hound of the Baskervilles, set before Holmes and Moriarty's battle. "The Empty House" is the first Holmes story set after his supposed death.