The Sign of the Four By Sir Arthur Conan Doyle

 The Sign of the Four

By Sir Arthur Conan Doyle

The Sign of the Four (1890) is the second Sherlock Holmes story in The Complete Sherlock Holmes.

Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson continue to live together and at the beginning of this story we learn that Homes is addicted to cocaine, which he shoots into his veins. Watson also alludes to Holmes's use of morphine. Holmes claims that when he is not working on a case he uses these drugs to stimulate his mind. Watson is clearly upset by this fact.

Then a woman named Mary Morston shows up asking for Holmes's help in figuring out the mystery of her missing father, who has been gone for ten years. She states that she was supposed to meet her father at a hotel but he never appeared after having gone out the previous night. Her father's friend (Sholto) claimed not to know he had returned. Then Mary starts receiving single pearls in the mail, the last accompanied by a letter telling her she had been wronged and requesting a meeting with her. Holmes takes the case, discovering that her father's friend has died and then the pearls started coming. Mary gives him a map of a fortress with the names of Jonathan Small, Mahomet Singh, Abdullah Khan and Dost Akbar.

They go to this meeting and find Sholto's son who illuminates how her father and his were connected to a priceless treasure. He says Mary's father had a heart attack during an argument with Sholto, who lied about knowing her father had died. Sholto himself dies before he is able to reveal the treasure's location to his sons. On his dead body is a note that says "The Sign of the Four," which is a symbol found on many items in this mystery. The two sons are Thaddeus and Bartholomew, who argue over the legacy and what to give to Mary. Bartholomew is found dead with a poison dart in his neck and the treasure is missing. Holmes, through his observations and deductions at the scene believes two men are responsible for all of the shenanigans: Jonathan Small and a small accomplice. There is evidence of a man with a wooden leg at the scene, who would be Jonathan Small. He traces them to a boat landing and a very fast boat called the Aurora. Holmes uses a dog to track them to a boat launch, where they race to catch it. The small companion, an aboriginal man, drowns in the process. Small claims the treasure is cursed after he confesses to the crimes and lays out the backstory, which involves a lot of life in India, how he lost his leg, had to flea to the fortress, and forced into a crime to acquire the treasure for others.

Th plot is much more complicated than all of this, far more complicated than in A Study in Scarlet. There was much more action in this one and a complicated backstory. What's funny to me is this sort of Scooby Do bad guy confessing everything he did and how, which would never happen in real life. I don't think I liked this one as much, but I did like seeing Holmes's drug addiction. At the end Watson and Mary Morsten have professed their love to one another, which was also weird since they had only known one another for about a few days. Holmes was less than enthusiastic about the pairing, and stated that he preferred to be single so that his mind was free for his own use in his profession.

I'm giving The Sign of the Four 3 stars. It was entertaining and intricate with a consistent voice, adding depth to the characters of Watson and Holmes. I'm hoping the following stories are a little easier to follow.