The Sign Of The Four, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle

The Sign of the Four (1890), also called The Sign of Four, was the second novel featuring Sherlock Holmes written by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. Doyle wrote four novels and 56 stories starring the fictional detective.

The story is set in 1887 or 1888. The Sign of Four has a complex plot involving service in East India Company, 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 detectives drug habit and humanizes him in a way that had not been done in A Study in Scarlet. It also introduces Doctor Watsons future wife, Mary Morstan.