The Sign of Four (Intermediate Level)

Rating:
Summary: Murder, Mystery and Treasure!
Review: A classic Holmes novel, this book is perhaps one of Sherlock's most puzzling mysteries. As told by Dr. Watson, this mystery may have been one of Holmes's toughest cases yet.

As Sherlock is injecting cocaine into his blood system, he sits down with placid relief, until there is a knock at the door. In enters the beautiful Mary Morstan, whom Watson immediately takes a fancy to. While Watson observes her beauty, Holmes observes her problem. It seems that she is a rather middle-class woman, with style and father in the military, who is currently stationed in India. He had recently wrote to her saying that he would come to visit. However, he never showed up when she went to pick him up. That was ten years ago. But starting six years ago, four years after his disappearance, Miss Morstan had been receiving mysterious packages containing pearls of great value, one a year. Having been contacted by her mysterious complimentor, should she go and meet him? Or should she stay home? The truth lies with in the book.

This book is a triumph for the celebrated novelist Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, and I believe that many people would enjoy this book. Just to be specific, it would mainly be for people who are in the age group of around: 13 or older, and also those who are fond of the mystery novels and thrillers and anyone who could use a good book.

Rating:
Summary: Murder, Mystery and Treasure!
Review: A classic Holmes novel, this book is perhaps one of Sherlock's most puzzling mysteries. As told by Dr. Watson, this mystery may have been one of Holmes's toughest cases yet.

As Sherlock is injecting cocaine into his blood system, he sits down with placid relief, until there is a knock at the door. In enters the beautiful Mary Morstan, whom Watson immediately takes a fancy to. While Watson observes her beauty, Holmes observes her problem. It seems that she is a rather middle-class woman, with style and father in the military, who is currently stationed in India. He had recently wrote to her saying that he would come to visit. However, he never showed up when she went to pick him up. That was ten years ago. But starting six years ago, four years after his disappearance, Miss Morstan had been receiving mysterious packages containing pearls of great value, one a year. Having been contacted by her mysterious complimentor, should she go and meet him? Or should she stay home? The truth lies with in the book.

This book is a triumph for the celebrated novelist Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, and I believe that many people would enjoy this book. Just to be specific, it would mainly be for people who are in the age group of around: 13 or older, and also those who are fond of the mystery novels and thrillers and anyone who could use a good book.

Rating:
Summary: Loyalty, Betrayal, Revenge, and Romance
Review: A fabulous treasure dogged by murder. A trans-racial oath of loyalty. A greedy major, a cannibal pigmy, and a peg-legged convict. Mix in a pig-headed police investigator and a brilliant-but-flawed amateur detective, and you have the makings of a first-class mystery.

Miss Mary Morstan, the recipient of yearly gifts of pearls from an anonymous benefactor, receives a summons declaring her a wronged woman and promising riches if she replies. She enlists the aid of Sherlock Holmes and Dr. John Watson, and finds herself in the middle of a locked-room murder mystery. If the mystery can only be solved, she will become the richest woman in England.

Holmes, in a virtuoso performance, solves the murder, finds the missing treasure, brings the killer to justice, and learns the strange tale of "The Four." Did I mention that Dr. Watson winds up married to Miss Morstan?

The format of this sequel to "A Study in Scarlet" follows basically the same pattern as the original Sherlock Holmes story. Holmes visits the scene of a baffling murder, draws amazing conclusions from his inspection of the scene, and relentlessly tracks down the villian, who then tells his story and turns out to be not such a bad guy after all.

I first read "Scarlet" and "Sign" as a pre-teenager, and they made an indelible impression on me. In my job I frequently visit murder scenes, and I believe that these two books are what have influenced me to perform inspections outside the crimescene tape.

An earlier reviewer remarked on Doyle's "politically incorrect" view of India. "The Sign of the Four" was written at the turn of the 19th century. We live in the 21st. We probably won't measure up to the 23rd century's yardstick for "political correctness" either.

Rating:
Summary: Holmes's second adventure
Review: A young woman visits Holmes and Watson, relating the story of her missing father. This leads one of the most famous partnerships in literature into a strange case involving treasure, murder, and betrayal. As he did in the previous novel of the series, Arthur Conan Doyle tells two stories. One is the tale of Holmes, Watson, and the unraveling of the case. The other is the flashback to the story of the main villain, an adventure tale involving a native mutiny against colonial masters. As a product of his time, Doyle cannot, I suppose, help being sympathetic to the colonialists and there is an undercurrent of racism that can be troubling to modern eyes. However, it is encouraging to note that not a single racist sentiment (that I can recall) is attributed to either Holmes or Watson. This is a fine mystery that benefits from the strong evocation of fog-bound Victorian London.

Rating:
Summary: better than 7 percent solution
Review: As the second full-length story of Doyle's Holmes series, this book is a classic. It lacks the landmark status of A Study in Scarlet and the overall drama of The Hound of the Baskervilles, but nevertheless is a must-read for all Holmes fans and is strongly recommended to fans of detective fiction. The crime scene is a classic -- "Watson, when you have eliminated all other possibilities, the remaining possibility, no matter how seemingly improbable, is nevertheless likely".... or something like that.

While A Study in Scarlet deals rather unmercifully with the Mormon colony in Utah, A Sign of Four presents what would now be considered a strikingly politically incorrect perspective on India. It's an historically interesting British viewpoint from late in the last century.

Whether you read a public copy or get it from the University of Virginia on-line archive, I strongly recommend A Sign of Four. It's a quick read, and certainly a better option for spare time than Holmes' seven percent solution.

Rating:
Summary: The second sherlock holmes's novel
Review: In this second novel of Sherlock Holmes's Dr John Watson continues introducing the world to the singular methods of his strange friend, Mr. Sherlock Holmes.

He starts the book with a study in deduction, looses his temper, and then cools down at Holmes's explanations. Then a singular customer appears in the stage with a strange case. This case leads to a terrific murder with outlandish murderers.

As usual, Watson, as dumb as a frog, cannot see a thing that his friend Holmes, as cleaver as a fox, can spot so easily.

The story here is a bit slow, especially in the capture of the villains, but it ends in a thrilling manhunt, and then in an unearthly account of the major villain.

This novel, in my opinion, is the best Sherlock Holmes's ever written by Doyle. I think any Holmes's fan must read it.

Rating:
Summary: Absolutely gripping!
Review: In this, the second Sherlock Holmes story written by Arthur Conan Doyle, Sherlock Holmes is called upon by a young lady who needs the great detective's help with a mystery. However, when this mystery leads to murder, Holmes must seek to uncover secrets that have lain hidden for many years, and have their roots in treacheries upon treacheries in far-off India. There's a one-legged man who is at the center of this mystery, and he has a murderous friend who may just be the end of Sherlock Holmes!

As I said, this is the second ever Sherlock Holmes story, written in 1890. As with the very best of the Holmes story, this one is absolutely gripping, carrying a fascinating story with mysteries wrapped up in mysteries that only Mr. Holmes can possibly conquer. As an added bonus, in this story, we get to learn about Dr. Watson's meeting of his true love, and his eventual marriage - which should end some rumors that people spread.

Yep, this is a great story, one that is sure to please any fan of mysteries, and is certain to delight any Sherlock Holmes fan!

Rating:
Summary: Excellent
Review: Like the other three Holmes novels, this book is a masterpiece. Sure, it is old (over 100 years, in fact) but, being Holmes, it will always be as fresh and exciting as it was the day it was released. Although all the Holmes stories are great, and you will have a good time reading any of them, I reccommend reading the books in chronological order (this can be conveniently done with the omnibus The Complete Sherlock Holmes), it will only serve to make you like the stories even more.

Anyways, this is the second Holmes story, and it is a page-turner, full of suspense. Also, it delivers the kind of intrigue and "how did he know that! " disbelief that only a Sherlock Holmes story can generate. It is because of this, and the stunning detail in which he is described throughout the 60 Holmes stories, that the hardcore readers of the Holmes stories cannont alltogether accept him as fictional. No character in the history of fiction has ever been more real to his readers, and none ever will be. Many Holmes fans have been known to feel remorse, even sadness upon visiting the Rickenback Fall (where Doyle originally tried to kill Holmes). That may sound fanciful, but indulge yourself in the 60 Holmes stories (including this one-one of the best) and see if you fall into that category.

Rating:
Summary: The science of deduction embodied in one man.
Review: Published in 1890, "The Sign of Four" was Doyle's second work, featuring the legendary detective Sherlock Holmes. The first chapter is appropriately titled "The Science of Deduction", and serves as a wonderful introduction to the enigmatic man and his methods. Holmes asserts that there are "three qualities necessary for the ideal detective", namely knowledge, the power of observation, and the power of deduction. Holmes' abilities at observation are superb, as evidenced by some of the books he's produced on obscure topics like the tracing of footsteps, the influence of a trade on the form of a hand, or the enumeration of 140 forms of cigar, cigarette and pipe tobacco ash. He is careful to distinguish mere observation from clear deductive reasoning, and it is the latter which really is the essence of Holmes. To him the only thing that is important is "the curious analytical reasoning from effects to causes" by which he unravels a case. Already in the opening, he demonstrates his powers of deduction by coming to stunning and perfectly logical conclusions about Watson's brother, merely by seeing his watch. What is obscure to everyone, is of course perfectly obvious to Holmes: "so absurdly simple that an explanation is superfluous." He is the epitomy of deduction and cold hard reason.

While Holmes is the embodiment of reason, Watson is the embodiment of emotion. Holmes is naturally critical of the emotional and romantic streak in Watson. "Detection is, or ought to be, an exact science and should be treated in the same cold and unemotional manner." When Watson comments on the attractiveness of Holmes' client, he replies "Is she? I did not observe." Completely deprived of emotion, he looks not at beauty, but at cold hard facts. "It is of the first importance not to allow your judgment to be biased by personal qualities ... The emotional qualities are antagonistic to clear reasoning." In this story Watson finds himself a wife, something Holmes would never consider: "...love is an emotional thing, and whatever is emotional is opposed to that true cold reason which I place above all things. I should never marry myself, lest I bias my judgment." Fortunately we need not share Holme's cold and emotionless tastes to love him, because we are involved in the story through the first person narrative of Watson, who has more than enough emotion and romance to make up for what Holmes lacks. Watson is a brilliant literary device for Doyle, because it enables us to portray Holmes with his cold logic without having to identify with him. Instead we identify with Watson as passive observers and view Holmes himself as a curious object to be marvelled at.

We need not identify with Holmes to appreciate his passion for deduction. In "The Sign of Four" Holmes applies his powers of deduction to a remarkable case involving Mary Morstan, whose father disappeared under mysterious circumstances some ten years earlier. Investigation uncovers the facts of his death, and the suprising discovery that he has bequeathed her a tremendous treasure. The plot thickens as the treasure disappears along with a classic locked-room murder mystery. Mysterious notes with "The Sign of Four" seem to be the only clue to the mystery. Of course only Holmes can and does unravel the mystery, even when all the other police detectives are desperately misled by both clues and lack of reason. As usual Holmes will cooperate with them, but only on his terms: "You are welcome to all the official credit, but you must act on the lines that I point out."

As with "A Study in Scarlet", we're again introduced to the elements that typify a Sherlock Holmes story. Holmes utilizes "the unofficial force - the Baker Street irregulars" to help him. They consist of a dozen dirty and ragged little street Arabs, whom Holmes pays in return for information gleaned from the streets. "They can go everywhere, see everything, overhear everyone." Holmes also utilizes the power of disguise, which he expertly uses to even pull the wool over the eyes of his companion Watson. But "The Sign of Four" also gives a glimpse of Holmes' weakness - an addiction to morphine and cocaine. The justification is that he only resorts to the use of drugs when he is not busy with a case. "My mind rebels at stagnatism." "Hence the cocaine. I cannot live without brainwork." He much prefers the mental challenge of a case "...it would prevent me from taking a second dose of cocaine." But just as Holme's intellectual brilliance stimulates himself, so it stimulates the reader. In the process of his deductions, he evidences an astute understanding of people, articulating gems like this: "The chief proof of man's real greatness lies in his perception of his own smallness." On carefully asking people the right questions: "The main thing with people of that sort is never to let them think that their information can be of the slightest importance to you. If you do they will instantly shut up like an oyster." On women: "Women are never to be entirely trusted - not the best of them." And as with most mysteries, as readers we are reminded of what lengths the passions of greed and revenge will go in corrupting human behaviour.

As in all the Sherlock Holmes stories, Holmes himself unquestionably emerges the hero. However, Doyle had not yet perfected the Sherlock Holmes formula, because in the lengthy extended flashback of the final chapter as the murderer describes his story Holmes himself falls to the background. The truth is, we want more of Holmes and his deduction, and that's what Doyle perfected in his later short stories. But if deduction is indeed a science as Holmes believes, then he himself is its greatest scientist, and there are few pleasures greater than seeing this enigmatic scientist at work in the laboratory of life. -GODLY GADFLY

Rating:
Summary: Tapers off at the end
Review: The first two-thirds of this short novel are ripe with the foggy atmosphere of Victorian London, as Holmes and Watson seek to help the pretty young client secure her legacy, a trunk filled with stolen jewels. But the thief-murderer duo are apprehended long before the end, and the last part is his rather mundane account of how the jewels were stolen in India and life at the prison on the Andaman Islands. There's actually very little "mystery" or detection to it, since we know who the thief-murderer are early on. The boat chase on the Thames is not especially interesting or convincing, nor is the romance between Dr. Watson and the pretty client. What saves this is the almost palpable atmosphere of London in the time of Jack the Ripper, plus the outrageous conclusions drawn by Sherlock Holmes.