The Sign of Four opens with the revelation that Holmes was injecting himself three times a day with cocaine or morphine, depending upon the desired effect. That must have been a fairly interesting periodical. Curiously enough, at the evening party the offer to publish such a sequel was made to Conan Doyle, the same magazine editor made an offer to Oscar Wilde for The Picture of Dorian Gray. So, one could not say that the demand for a sequel was overwhelming. The Sign of Four (1890) was the second volume in the Sherlock Holmes series, written by Arthur Conan Doyle three years after the first. And in the ensuing investigation – which involves a wronged woman, a stolen hoard of Indian treasure, a wooden-legged ruffian, a helpful dog and a love affair – even the jaded Holmes is moved to exclaim, ‘Isn’t it gorgeous!’ Now she has had an intriguing invitation to meet her unknown benefactor and urges Holmes and Watson to accompany her.

Four years later she began to receive an exquisite gift every year: a large, lustrous pearl. His mood is only lifted by a visit from a beautiful but distressed young woman – Mary Morstan, whose father vanished ten years before. John Watson, Jonathan Small, Mary Morstan, Thaddeus Sholtoįollowed by: The Adventures of Sherlock HolmesĪs a dense yellow fog swirls through the streets of London, a deep melancholy has descended on Sherlock Holmes, who sits in a cocaine-induced haze at 221B Baker Street. Publisher: Lippincott’s Monthly Magazine‎

The Sign of Four by Arthur Conan Doyle