The Sign of Four

The Sign of Four
Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
(Book review)
The book I’m going to talk about is “The Sign of the Four” also called The Sign of Four written by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. Sir Arthur Conan Doyle has been commissioned to write his second book about Sherlock Holmes the story over a dinner with Joseph M. Stoddart, managing editor of Lippincott's Monthly Magazine, at the Langham Hotel in London on 30 August 1889. The novel first appears in the February 1890 edition of Lippincott's Monthly Magazine as The Sign of the Four, appearing in both London and Philadelphia. The British edition of the magazine originally has been sold for a shilling, and the American for 25 cents. Surviving copies are now
The story is set in London in 1888. Sherlock Holmes is bored and case-less, and relieving his boredom by taking morphine and cocaine. A young lady, Miss Mary Morstan, contact Sherlock Holmes for his help regarding her father, captain Morstan, who disappeared 10 years ago. Since his disappearance she has received one pearl a year for the last six years from an anonymous benefactor. Miss Morstan has now received a letter which urges her to meet with the sender that night. HE permits her to bring two friends as long as they are not police. And Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson escort her to this meeting.
In the course of the story they go to the home of an eccentric novelist, Thaddeus Sholto, who recounts to them a tale of secrecy, hidden treasure and sudden death. Thaddeus reports that his father, Major Sholto, was in the army in India with Miss Morstan's father where the two had come to possess a fabulous treasure. Afterwards, her father mysteriously disappeared without his promised share. A guilt-ridden Major Sholto hid the treasure and sent Miss Morstan the annual gift of pearls. Years later, a letter arrives which leaves Major Sholto in a state of shock and despair. On his deathbed, Major Sholto prepares to tell his two sons about the treasure's location, but dies...