Arthur Conan Doyle: The Sign of the Four (Illustrated) First published in 1890, The Sign of Four is Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's second book starring legendary detective Sherlock Holmes. The story is complex, involving a secret between four ex-cons from India and a hidden treasure. More complex than the first Holmes novel, The Sign of Four also introduces the detective's drug habit and leaves breadcrumbs for the reader that lead toward the final resolution. Arthur Conan Doyle: The Sign of the Four (Illustrated) After months without a case, the world’s greatest detective is aimless, his only stimulation the daily injection of his drug of choice. “Which is it today?” asks a disapproving Watson—“morphine or cocaine?” For a mind as finely tuned as Holmes’s, the dull routine of existence will not suffice. Arthur Conan Doyle : The Sign of the Four (Illustrated) Thankfully for Holmes’s health and Watson’s anxiety levels, a beautiful young woman soon calls at 221B Baker Street. Ten years ago, Mary Morstan’s father, a captain of the 34th Bombay Infantry, disappeared from a London hotel. Four years thereafter, Mary began to receive large, lustrous pearls in the mail—one per year, always delivered on May 4. Now, six pearls later, Mary is finally about to meet her anonymous benefactor and asks Holmes and Watson to accompany her for safety’s sake. The crime they uncover—in which a royal treasure, a diabolical double-cross, and a man-eating crocodile all play a part—is one of the most thrilling tales Arthur Conan Doyle ever wrote and a crucial chapter in the Sherlock Holmes saga. Arthur Conan Doyle : The Sign of the Four (Illustrated) This ebook features a new introduction by Otto Penzler and has been professionally proofread to ensure accuracy and readability on all devices. Arthur Conan Doyle : The Sign of the Four (Illustrated)

The New York Times bestselling guide to thinking like literature's greatest detective. "Steven Pinker meets Sir Arthur Conan Doyle" (Boston Globe), by the author of The Confidence Game. No fictional character is more renowned for his powers of thought and observation than Sherlock Holmes. But is his extraordinary intellect merely a gift of fiction, or can we learn to cultivate these abilities ourselves, to improve our lives at work and at home? We can, says psychologist and journalist Maria Konnikova, and in Mastermind she shows us how. Beginning with the “brain attic”—Holmes’s metaphor for how we store information and organize knowledge—Konnikova unpacks the mental strategies that lead to clearer thinking and deeper insights. Drawing on twenty-first-century neuroscience and psychology, Mastermind explores Holmes’s unique methods of ever-present mindfulness, astute observation, and logical deduction. In doing so, it shows how each of us, with some self-awareness and a little practice, can employ these same methods to sharpen our perceptions, solve difficult problems, and enhance our creative powers. For Holmes aficionados and casual readers alike, Konnikova reveals how the world’s most keen-eyed detective can serve as an unparalleled guide to upgrading the mind.

"I have been in the Valley of Fear... I am not out of it yet." "There - is - danger!" The warning message decrypted by Sherlock Holmes arrives too late to save John Douglas of Birlstone Manor, Sussex, an American gentleman gruesomely murdered in his study by person or persons unknown. But who was John Douglas, why wasn't he wearing his wedding-ring, and what is the crucial significance of the missing dumb-bell? This atmospheric graphic novel adaptation by Ian Edginton and I.N.J. Culbard - the team behind this series' acclaimed A Study in Scarlet, The Hound of the Baskervilles and The Sign of the Four - will keep you guessing.

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. Doyle wrote four novels and 56 short stories featuring the fictional detective.

These are the last twelve stories Conan Doyle wrote about Holmes and Watson. They reflect the disillusioned world of the 1920s and also include some of the wittiest passages in the series.

To Sherlock Holmes she is always the woman. I have seldom heard him mention her under any other name. In his eyes she eclipses and predominates the whole of her sex. It was not that he felt any emotion akin to love for Irene Adler. All emotions, and that one particularly, were abhorrent to his cold, precise but admirably balanced mind. He was, I take it, the most perfect reasoning and observing machine that the world has seen, but as a lover he would have placed himself in a false position. He never spoke of the softer passions, save with a gibe and a sneer. They were admirable things for the observer--excellent for drawing the veil from men's motives and actions. But for the trained reasoner to admit such intrusions into his own delicate and finely adjusted temperament was to introduce a distracting factor which might throw a doubt upon all his mental results. Grit in a sensitive instrument, or a crack in one of his own high-power lenses, would not be more disturbing than a strong emotion in a nature such as his. And yet there was but one woman to him, and that woman was the late Irene Adler, of dubious and questionable memory.

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. Doyle wrote four novels and 56 short stories featuring the fictional detective.The story is set in 1888. The Sign of the Four has a complex plot involving service in India, the Indian Rebellion of 1857, a stolen treasure, and a secret pact among four convicts ("the Four" of the title) and two corrupt prison guards. It presents the detective's drug habit and humanizes him in a way that had not been done in the preceding novel, A Study in Scarlet (1887). It also introduces Doctor Watson's future wife, Mary Morstan.

When they have to take on the donkey's load to get to the fair, the tailor, baker, and shoemaker all learn to be tolerant of the other fellow's point of view.