A Study in Scarlet

About the book

Seeking affordable rooms after military service, Dr Watson meets a man with unusual interests and an extraordinary appetite for problems. Their new arrangement at Baker Street soon places Watson beside Sherlock Holmes in the investigation of a puzzling death. Details that appear incidental to others become the basis of Holmes's reasoning, while Watson tries to understand both the case and his companion's methods. Doyle expands the mystery beyond its opening London setting, giving the crime a history that changes the reader's sense of its motives. The book introduces the contrast between analytical confidence and humane, sometimes bewildered observation that animates the partnership. Its two-part construction makes detection a way of recovering a concealed story as well as identifying a responsible person.

• Detection
• Revenge
• Hidden histories

Why read it

For the first encounter between two contrasting minds and a mystery that widens unexpectedly in scope.

English text