The Sign of Four

A young governess, Mary Morstan, consults Holmes about a mysterious annual gift of pearls and a father who vanished years earlier. Her case leads Holmes and Watson into a tangle of buried treasure, an old promise and a dangerous pursuit through the streets and along the river of Victorian London. The novel deepens the partnership of the two men and gives Watson a personal stake in the story. It combines brisk detective work with colonial intrigue and a lively chase.