A Study in Scarlet is the first Sherlock Holmes novel and marks the beginning of many illustrious adventures for literature’s favourite detective.

Set in the atmospheric, lamplit fog of Victorian London, this novel introduces the sleuthing duo, Sherlock Holmes and Doctor Watson, for the first time. Returning from service in Afghanistan, Watson is wounded and searching for living quarters. He takes up residence in a flat at 221B Baker Street with the peculiar Holmes and is soon embarking on a series of mysterious adventures. Accompanying the amateur detective to the scene of a bloody crime, Watson is horrified and baffled by the dead body that shows no sign of violence. But Holmes already has a theory forming…

Originally published in the 1887 edition of Beeton’s Christmas Annual, A Study in Scarlet was Arthur Conan Doyle’s first significant work. This edition features a specially commissioned introduction as well as an article by Arthur Conan Doyle and an essay on the history of detective fiction by S.S. Van Dine.