4 h 53 minAudiobook9 minSummaryRead it, hear it, the 15-minute summary, and print and large print at costPaperback · 6 × 9 in · 120 pagesHardcover · 6 × 9 in · 120 pagesAbout this book
A vanished father, a yearly pearl, and an unknown sender draw Sherlock Holmes into a dangerous hunt for treasure.
Mary Morstan brings a strange story to Baker Street: her father has disappeared, and someone sends her a pearl each year. Sherlock Holmes welcomes the puzzle. With Dr John Watson beside him, he follows her case into dark London streets, where a family secret opens onto an old crime.
In Arthur Conan Doyle’s The Sign of the Four, a footprint, a stain, and a watch can become steps in a chain of reasoning. Watson tells the story as the search gathers pace, linking hidden riches to betrayal in India. Treasure promises wealth, but fear and greed surround those who seek it.
What you’ll discover
- Small clues, sharp reasoning Watch Holmes turn overlooked details into questions that carry the investigation forward.
- London after dark Follow the trail through fog and lamplight toward a tense pursuit on the Thames.
- Watson's warmer view Share the case with an honest narrator whose interest in Mary becomes personal.
- Treasure with a cost Explore how the riches of Agra bind people through greed, guilt, and old betrayals.
- An unlikely tracker Meet Toby, the mongrel whose keen nose helps trace a trail through London.
Is it for you?
This book suits readers who like clue-driven puzzles, Victorian London, and the friendship of Holmes and Watson. It also works as a first Holmes novel. Readers who want modern pacing or a gentler treatment of the book's colonial attitudes may find it less suited.
What’s inside
The key ideas, in the 15-minute summary
- A Bored Genius Meets a Puzzling Client
- A Night Meeting Opens an Old Secret
- A Death at Pondicherry Lodge
- A Dog and a Trail Through London
- What Greed, Loyalty and Reason Mean Here
- How Doyle Builds the Case and the Mood
Who’s who
- Sherlock HolmesA consulting detective who reads small clues with great precision and who grows restless and moody whenever he has no problem to solve.
- Dr John WatsonHolmes's friend and the teller of the story, a doctor and former army man who is drawn to the new client.
- Mary MorstanA calm young governess whose father disappeared years ago and who receives a pearl each year from an unknown person.
- Thaddeus SholtoA nervous, fussy collector of fine things who wants to treat Miss Morstan fairly over a family secret.
- Bartholomew SholtoThaddeus's twin brother, who lives at Pondicherry Lodge and guards a treasure his father hid.
- Athelney JonesA confident Scotland Yard inspector who rushes to conclusions and clashes with Holmes over how to read the facts.
- TobyA homely mongrel from Lambeth with a rare talent for following a scent through the streets of London.
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- Large print paperback
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- Large print hardcover
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The Sign of the Four
by Arthur Conan Doyle· 1890
Holmes investigates missing treasure and a crime rooted in India.
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From the 15-minute summary · Key idea 1 of 6
A Bored Genius Meets a Puzzling Client
The story opens in Baker Street, where Holmes is restless. With no case to absorb him, he injects himself with a solution of cocaine, and Watson, a doctor, protests. Watson has just read Holmes's small study on how to tell tobacco ashes apart, and the two men fall into an argument about whether reasoning can really be called a science. Holmes insists that detection ought to be an exact science, and he scolds Watson for writing his earlier adventure up as a romance.
To prove his point, Holmes looks at Watson's pocket watch and reads from it the history of Watson's late elder brother. He notes the scratches around the keyhole, the pawnbroker's marks, and the signs of a careless and unhappy man who drank. Watson is first angry and then amazed. The scene sets the rule of the book, which is that nothing is guessed and everything is seen, and that ordinary objects carry whole life stories for anyone who looks.
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The author
Arthur Conan Doyle
1859–1930 · British detective novelist
Arthur Conan Doyle was a British writer and physician born in Edinburgh in 1859. He practised medicine in England and wrote novels, short stories and histories. His Sherlock Holmes stories began with A Study in Scarlet in 1887. He also wrote The Lost World in 1912. He died in Crowborough, England, in 1930.
“Detection is, or ought to be, an exact science, and should be treated in the same cold and unemotional manner.”
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What is The Sign of the Four about?
It is a Sherlock Holmes mystery in which Mary Morstan asks for help in finding out what happened to her missing father. The search leads to a murder, a lost treasure from India, and a chase through London.
What does the sign of the four mean?
It is a phrase on a note found at the scene of a crime. It points to a group of four men bound by a shared secret from the past, and it gives the book its title.
Is The Sign of the Four a true story?
No. It is a work of fiction, published in 1890. Doyle drew on real settings such as Victorian London and the British presence in India, but the characters and the case are invented.
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