A Study in Scarlet

This short novel introduces Sherlock Holmes and Dr John Watson. Watson, a doctor recently invalided home from army service, looks for lodgings in London and ends up sharing rooms with the odd, brilliant Holmes. Soon they are drawn into a puzzling murder in an empty house, with few clues and a mysterious word left behind. The book shows Holmes's method of close observation and logical inference for the first time, and it gives the friendship that anchors the whole series its beginning. Its second half moves far from London and widens the story's scope.