Showing results for title "The Sign of Four", by author "Arthur Conan Doyle" in All Categories

The Sign of the Four is the thrilling follow-up to Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's premiere novel, A Study in Scarlet in which he introduced the world's first unofficial consulting detective, the legendary and brilliant Sherlock Holmes.

When a young lady approaches Sherlock Holmes looking for help in finding out what happened to her father when he disappeared 10 years earlier, both Holmes and Watson are sent on a mission involving stolen treasure, service in colonial India and a secret pact among four ex-convicts. (Summary by Robin Cotter)

The Sign of Four (SIGN) is a Sherlock Holmes novel written by Arthur Conan Doyle first published in the Lippincott's Magazine in February 1890. This is the 2nd Sherlock Holmes story. In the 7 and 14 June 1890 issues of The Bristol Observer appeared the first illustrations of Sherlock Holmes wearing a deerstalker, before the well-known Sidney Paget ones.

A Ms. Mary Morstan arrives at 221B Baker Street with a case for Sherlock Holmes and his companion, Dr. John Watson. Some ten years prior, her father, Captain Arthur Morstan, returned to London while on leave from his post in India—only to go missing. Adding another layer to the mystery are six pearls in her possession, having received one per year since 1882. The sixth and most recently received pearl was accompanied by a letter asking for a meeting, claiming Ms. Morstan is a wronged woman.

The story is set in 1888. The Sign of the Four has a complex plot involving service in India, the Indian Rebellion of 1857, a stolen treasure, and a secret pact among four convicts ("the Four" of the title) and two corrupt prison guards. It presents the detective's drug habit and humanizes him in a way that had not been done in the preceding novel, A Study in Scarlet (1887). It also introduces Doctor Watson's future wife, Mary Morstan.