The Sign of the Four

Arthur Conan Doyle

Apr 2014 · Sherlock Holmes Book 2 · Open Road Media

About this ebook

Holmes and Watson unravel a mystery so exotic it stretches to the very ends of the British Empire

After months without a case, the world’s greatest detective is aimless, his only stimulation the daily injection of his drug of choice. “Which is it to-day?” asks a disapproving Watson—“morphine or cocaine?” For a mind as finely tuned as Holmes’s, the dull routine of existence will not suffice.
 
Thankfully for Holmes’s health and Watson’s anxiety levels, a beautiful young woman soon calls at 221B Baker Street. Ten years ago, Mary Morstan’s father, a captain of the 34th Bombay Infantry, disappeared from a London hotel. Four years thereafter, Mary began to receive large, lustrous pearls in the mail—one per year, always delivered on May 4. Now, six pearls later, Mary is finally about to meet her anonymous benefactor and asks Holmes and Watson to accompany her for safety’s sake. The crime they uncover—in which a royal treasure, a diabolical double cross, and a man-eating crocodile all play a part—is one of the most thrilling tales Arthur Conan Doyle ever wrote, and a crucial chapter in the Sherlock Holmes saga.
 
This ebook features a new introduction by Otto Penzler and has been professionally proofread to ensure accuracy and readability on all devices.
 

Ratings and reviews

This book was somewhat of a disappointment after a study in scarlet.

awsome creation

About the author

Arthur Conan Doyle (1859–1930) practiced medicine in the resort town of Southsea, England, and wrote stories while waiting for his patients to arrive. In 1886, he created two of the greatest fictional characters of all time: the detective Sherlock Holmes and his partner, Dr. Watson. Over the course of four novels and fifty-six short stories, Conan Doyle set a standard for crime fiction that has yet to be surpassed.