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.
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