The Sign of Four (1890)

The second story about Holmes (1890) is noticeably more lively than the first — it features a chase on the night Thames, an Indian backstory with treasures, the exoticism of the colonial empire, and that very boredom of the detective between cases that drives him to the syringe. Miss Mary Morstan comes to Holmes: for several years, an unknown person has been sending her a pearl, and now he invites her to meet. The story of an old betrayal unfolds, stretching from India to London. For the cycle, this story is doubly important: firstly, Conan Doyle has finally found the tone — a confident alternation of reasoning and action; secondly, here begins Watson's personal storyline, which will change the dynamics on Baker Street. Holmes's method is already formulated almost aphoristically, and the colonial backdrop, which has become the texture of the adventure, today reads also as an involuntary portrait of the era with its perceptions of the world.

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