Sherlock Holmes: The Sign of Four (Sherlock Complete Set 2)

'Down the Strand the lamps were but misty splotches of diffused light which threw a feeble circular glimmer upon the slimy pavement'.

Whilst the seamy streets of London drown in a sea of smog, Sherlock Holmes sinks into a cocaine-induced melancholy, until Miss Mary Morstan presents him with a most intriguing case. A terrible death, an unknown benefactor, stolen treasure, and a secret pact between criminals stretching back to a mutiny-torn India, lead Holmes into an epic pursuit of the truth.

“He is unique in simultaneously bringing down the curtain on an era and raising one on another, ushering in a genre of writing that... has never been surpassed. His own life, as footballer... eye surgeon, champion of injustice and investigator into the paranormal, is the stuff of legend. Personally, I would walk a mile in tight boots to read his letters to the milkman”

Stephen Fry, The Arthur Conan Doyle Collection

Sir Arthur Conan Doyle was born in Edinburgh on May 22, 1859. He was a physician and writer, most noted for his Sherlock Holmes books, which are generally considered a major innovation in crime fiction. Conan Doyle had 2 children with his first wife, Louise Hawkins, who died in 1906. He went on to marry Jean Lackie, with whom he had 3 more children. He died of a heart attack in 1930. Visit the official web site of the Sir Arthur Conan Doyle Literary Estate at

Purchase one of 1st World Library's Classic Books and help support our free internet library of downloadable eBooks. - - Sherlock Holmes took his bottle from the corner of the mantel-piece and his hypodermic syringe from its neat morocco case. With his long, white, nervous fingers he adjusted the delicate needle, and rolled back his left shirt-cuff. For some little time his eyes rested thought-fully upon the sinewy forearm and wrist all dotted and scarred with innumerable puncture-marks. Finally he thrust the sharp point home, pressed down the tiny piston, and sank back into the velvet-lined arm-chair with a long sigh of satisfaction. Three times a day for many months I had witnessed this performance, but custom had not reconciled my mind to it. On the contrary, from day to day I had become more irritable at the sight, and my conscience swelled nightly within me at the thought that I had lacked the courage to protest. Again and again I had registered a vow that I should deliver my soul upon the subject, but there was that in the cool, nonchalant air of my companion which made him the last man with whom one would care to take anything approaching to a liberty. His great powers, his masterly manner, and the experience which I had had of his many extraordinary qualities, all made me diffident and backward in crossing him.

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