Holmes has a cabman try to lift his trunk-and arrests the cabman Jefferson Hope by name as the killer. One clue is a small pillbox containing two pills-one harmless and one a poison. The second murder is of secretary Joseph Strangerson who was stabbed in his hotel room. Despite a false start, Holmes tries to trap the killer with a fake ring advertisement but fails.

Holmes and Watson go to the scene of the crime-Holmes deduces that the victim Enoch Drebber had been poisoned that the murderer smoke cigars was over six feet tall and had a florid complexion, and that the cause of the murder was a woman. Detective Gregson of Scotland Yard letters Holmes to consult him on a murder case. Finding that he must move to cheaper lodgings, he makes the acquaintance of Sherlock Holmes -an eccentric student of chemistry and crime this however is a sideline-Holmes real profession is that of a private consulting detective-with an extraordinary memory for both observation and knowledge Holmes can deduce both a persons profession and where they have been. Original illustration of Holmes with magnifying glass Plot ġ881 Dr John H Watson having received a medical degree is attached to the British army war in Afghanistan however after being badly wounded and stricken with fever, he is sent back to England with a half-pay pension for a year. The novel was followed by The Sign of the Four, published in 1890.Ī Study in Scarlet was the first work of detective fiction to have the magnifying glass as an investigative tool. Although Conan Doyle wrote 56 short stories about Holmes, A Study in Scarlet is one of only four full-length Holmes novels. Only 11 complete copies of the Annual exist now, and they have considerable value. It was published in Beeton's Christmas Annual for 1887. The story and its main characters attracted little public interest when it first appeared. Holmes describes the story's murder investigation as his 'study in scarlet': 'There's the scarlet thread of murder running through the colourless skein of life, and our duty is to unravel it, and isolate it, and expose every inch of it'. They became two of the most famous characters in literature.Ĭonan Doyle wrote the story in 1886, and it was published the next year. It introduces his new characters, the detective Sherlock Holmes and his friend, Dr.

A Study in Scarlet is a detective mystery novel written by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle.

A study in scarlet 1887