The adventures and memoirs of Sherlock Holmes

This Vintage Conan Doyle edition contains the collection of the short stories originally published in the books The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes and The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes. Sir Arthur Conan Doyle (1859-1930) created the character Sherlock Holmes in 1887 for A Study in Scarlet, the first of four novels and fifty-six short stories about Holmes and Dr. Watson. 

Dr Watson, the narrator and observer in these short stories, accompanies Sherlock Holmes as he solves puzzles and crimes that the police have difficulty resolving. The importance of the case varies in each story and very occasionally Holmes is outwitted but it is fun to try and follow the clues, obvious and not so obvious, and work out the solution.

There are twenty-four stories in this compilation all, of course, set in Victorian England. Times may have changed but it was good to become immersed again in the world of Sherlock Holmes and Dr Watson. Looking at the range of films and television series based on Sherlock Holmes and the number of Sherlock Holmes inspired mystery series books, the writings of Conan Doyle and his two main characters continue to be relevant in the 2020s.

The Sign of the Four

The Sign of the Four, a Sherlock Homes book by Arthur Conan Doyle, is one of the books featured in the Future Learn Classic Detective Fiction course prepared by the University of Newcastle (NSW). I read this book as an ebook borrowed via my local library. The Sign of the Four is also available on Project Gutenberg.

The Sign of the Four (1890) is the second novel written by Arthur Conan Doyle featuring Sherlock Holmes and Dr Watson. The author wrote four books and fifty-six short stories featuring these characters and the various crimes they investigated.

When we meet Sherlock Holmes he is bored and in the process of taking cocaine. Fortunately Mary Morstan unnexpectedy arrives with a mystery for him to solve. Ten years previously her father returned from India and disappeared. Once a year since 1892 she has received a pearl in the mail from an anonymous sender. Now she has received a letter asking her to meet an unknown person that evening and Mary requests Holmes and Dr Watson to accompany her.

Thus begins a tale of murder, rebellion and missing treasure as Watson tells the tale of how Holmes solves a case that baffles the police. Class differences and attitudes to race are portrayed in this tale set in India and 1880s London. There is also a chase in a police boat on the Thames as attempts are made to capture the murderer and retrieve the treasure box after Holmes and Watson use Toby, a dog, to track the suspected culprits. The background to the crime is finally revealed in the final chapter.

The Sign of the Four was made into a film in 1932 and a movie for television in 1983 and again in 1987 and 2001.