I liked this more than Doyle's first Sherlock novella, at least the writing and most of the character development. The first page was a shock though, with Sherlock being portrayed as a morphine addict. I wish Doyle had not gone there with this character, especially if it was for shock value. Evidently Doyle wrote this after a chance encounter with Oscar Wilde so I wonder how much of the story, if any, was influenced by that meeting. ( )

The second novella recounting the exploits of Sherlock Holmes shares a peculiar structural feature with the first, A Study in Scarlet: a tale within the tale. The second, told at length by the freshly apprehended culprit, is the crime behind the crime, the reason why he intrepidly executed vengeance. This doesn’t free him of guilt for the fresher crime, nor does he expect it to, but it casts what has been done in a softer light.
The earlier crime occurs elsewhere — exotic locales like the Utah territory and the Indian subcontinent.
Not that any of this impresses Holmes. At the end of the tale of the Agra treasure, he only remarks to the wooden-legged Jonathan Small about the more recent crime: “You brought your own rope. That I did not know.”
A second shared feature, more prominently on display here than in the first book, is the blithe racist remarks. Watson, who records the Holmes cases, unreflectingly shares the prejudices of his day and sees the world, or at least its population, in strictly black-and-white terms. The blacks include the inhabitants of India, whose revolt against their imperial masters seems incomprehensible.
I don’t suggest that the Holmes canon be subjected to the same mutilation that Dahl and others are undergoing. This book reflects the attitudes of London 1890; let it stand.
This is particularly true because the tale subverts its own racial attitudes in a way that escapes Watson and may have also escaped Doyle. “The Four” of the title are four men who have been cheated. Small is one; the other three are Sikhs. These four hold faith with each other. They are robbed of their (stolen) treasure by a white man, a British officer, no less.
Book banners might also want to know that the book opens with Holmes injecting himself with a seven percent solution of cocaine. Reading this for the first time as an impressionable thirteen-year-old didn’t turn me into an intravenous drug user. ( )

The 2nd story immediately introduces Holmes's needle dependence on cocaine, which he uses when overcome with ennui at the absence of a case to solve. One finally comes in the form of Mary Morstan (Watson's future wife), and we are taken to the outskirts of London, to flashbacks in India, and on a suspenseful boat chase down the Thames, all while viewing the negative effects of Victorian social status and colonialism. #whataride ( )

A classic story with all the memes, a lost treasure, a "hideous" face in the window, a carriage chase, high speed pursuit on the Thames and so on. This is the story that introduces Toby the super-sniffing dog. Sherlock's disturbing cocaine habit is featured.
Read for the British Authors Challenge
audiobook 1/28/2024 ( )

Hired by a young lady, Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson investigate the strange recent deaths of her missing father's friends from the army, as well as the whereabouts of the Great Mogul, the second-largest diamond in the world.

The Sign of the Four (1890), also called The Sign of Four , is the second novel featuring Sherlock Holmes by British writer Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. It's themes deal with evil, justice, Victorian fear, empire and imperialism. The Sign of the Four has a complex plot involving service in India, the Indian Mutiny of 1857, a stolen treasure, and a secret pact among four convicts ("the Four" of the title) and two corrupt prison guards.

The Sign of the Four is an improvement over A Study in Scarlet, and is preceded by one of the best in the canon, The Hound of the Baskervilles.

The Sign of the Four is a complex mystery that features more of what we love about Sherlock and Watson (Sherlock's cunning, cold deductions, Watson's emotions and wonderment) yet it's language can be quite dated and the mystery is almost too much of a labyrinth. Still a worthwhile read though!



( )