The Sign of Four (Sherlock Holmes (Headline)) - Softcover

Doyle, Arthur Conan

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0755334493 ISBN 13: 9780755334490

Publisher: Headline, 2006

Synopsis

'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...

About this title

From the Publisher:

"Barker adapts character voices adroitly, showing an especially uncanny ear for stuffed-shirt aristocrats."

From the Back Cover:

Arthur Conan Doyle’s second Sherlock Holmes novel is both a detective story and an imperial romance. Ostensibly the story of Mary Morstan, a beautiful young woman enlisting the help of Holmes to find her vanished father and solve the mystery of her receipt of a perfect pearl on the same date each year, it gradually uncovers a tale of treachery and human greed. The action audaciously ranges from penal settlements on the Andaman Islands to the suburban comfort of South London, and from the opium-fuelled violence of Agra Fort during the Indian ‘Mutiny’ to the cocaine-induced contemplation of Holmes’ own Baker Street.

This Broadview Edition places Doyle’s tale in the cultural, political, and social contexts of late nineteenth-century colonialism and imperialism. The appendices provide a wealth of relevant extracts from hard-to-find sources, including official reports, memoirs, newspaper editorials, and anthropological studies.

About this edition

• Publisher: Headline
• Publication date: 2006
• ISBN 10: 0755334493
• ISBN 13: 9780755334490
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 160