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Cover of A Study in Scarlet by Arthur Conan Doyle

A Study in Scarlet

Book 1 of Sherlock Holmes novels

  • 162 pages ยท about 3 hours
  • First published 1887
  • 1,447 editions
  • Free to read

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1 About this book

Dr John Watson, an army doctor newly returned to London, is looking for lodgings he can afford and is introduced to Sherlock Holmes, an eccentric young man who calls himself a consulting detective. The two take rooms together in Baker Street. When a man is found dead in an empty house, the Scotland Yard detectives ask for Holmes's help, and Watson sees his methods at work for the first time. The second part of the novel leaves London to tell the history behind the crime. Published in 1887, this is the first Sherlock Holmes story.

  • Action & Adventure Fiction
  • Classics
  • Crime scenes
  • Mystery
  • Detectives
  • Mystery and suspense
  • Murder
  • Private investigators

2 What to expect

The first Sherlock Holmes story: Watson meets Holmes, they take rooms in Baker Street, and a baffling murder in an empty London house shows the detective's methods. The first half is brisk and often funny, with the famous introduction of both characters; the second is a long flashback set among the Mormons of Utah, slower and, in its picture of them, lurid and unfair. It is short and easily read.

Good for readers who want: the first Sherlock Holmes case, classic detection, and a short read.

3 Read it free, right here

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4 About Arthur Conan Doyle

1859โ€“1930

Sir Arthur Ignatius Conan Doyle (22 May 1859 โ€“ 7 July 1930) was a British writer and physician. He is best known for his four novels and fifty-six short stories about the fictional consulting detective Sherlock Holmes and his assistant Dr. Watson, which are milestones in crime fiction, and for his first work featuring Professor Challenger, The Lost World (1912), which gave its name to a subgenre of speculative fiction.

Bio adapted from Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0)

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