The Sign of the Four

The Sign of the Four (1890) also called The Sign of Four is the second novel featuring Sherlock Holmes written by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. As a dense yellow fog swirls through the streets of London a deep melancholy has descended on Sherlock Holmes who sits in a cocaine-induced haze at 221B Baker Street. His mood is only lifted by a visit from a beautiful but distressed young woman - Mary Morstan whose father vanished ten years before. Four years later she began to receive an exquisite gift every year: a large lustrous pearl. Now she has had an intriguing invitation to meet her unknown benefactor and urges Holmes and Watson to accompany her.