I just finished "The Sign of Four," by Arthur Conan Doyle, and I have no one to talk about it with, so I'm going to leave a review here.

By Hidden_Bison67

Hey! I’ve dropped a few reviews on here lately and the whole vibe has felt pretty responsive, so I’m back again. Also, this one’s extra fun for me because I already reviewed *A Study in Scarlet*, the first Holmes/Watson thing, so I can actually say whether I think the series gets better. If you want to know what I thought before, here are my earlier ones: - *The Big Sleep* - *A Study in Scarlet* - *The Murder of Roger Ackroyd* Anyway—on to *The Sign of Four*. *****SPOILERS-ish below***** ## Sherlock: Drug User? Okay, so the book basically wastes no time with a hook. The very first paragraph has Sherlock doing cocaine, and I read it twice because I couldn’t believe it was just… said so casually. It also made me wonder if people really looked at cocaine that way back in 1890, but maybe not? Either way, Watson clearly thinks it’s gross/reprehensible, and then the book starts talking about “The Science of Deduction.” Sherlock basically says he uses it to keep his mind occupied when he’s not in the middle of a complicated case. Sure, I can understand the logic, I guess. My main weird thing is: it shows up at the start, then disappears for most of the book, then comes back near the end. It doesn’t really matter to the story in the middle, so it feels like either setup for something later or just another “Sherlock being Sherlock” quirk. And honestly… if it’s a quirk, that’s kind of a wild one. As for the actual case part: Sherlock is on fire in this one. In *A Study in Scarlet* I felt like his deductions/observations were sometimes kind of vague or like they came from nowhere. Here, I can follow what he’s doing. It’s still clearly way beyond normal person abilities, but it actually makes sense while you’re reading it. Also, that early chapter where he talks through his deduction method had me thinking, “Maybe I should try doing some of that in real life.” Which is either a compliment to the writing or me being too easily influenced. And I’ll also say this: in the first book, Sherlock kind of vanishes for a big chunk, and it hurt my enjoyment. This time he’s way more present, and I’m sure that’s part of why I liked it so much more. He was my favorite in the first one and still is here. ## Dr. Watson: More than just a camera My first impression of Watson was that he was mostly there to frame the story—like the audience stand-in. Not that it’s bad, because that role is important, but I didn’t expect much more. This book surprised me because Watson actually feels like a real person. He has opinions, and there’s even a love story. I should admit I’m biased because I usually like love stories, even when readers complain they “happen too fast.” I agree in general that it’s better when romance grows naturally, but if it’s sudden, I don’t automatically hate it. It doesn’t make the story worse for me as long as it still fits. Watson meets Miss Mary Morstan, and it’s pretty much immediate. Within the story, she’s basically set up to inherit a lot of money, which (old-timey values, I guess) would put her out of reach for him. But what I liked is that it gives Watson this chance to show he’s genuinely noble—he still helps solve the case even though if Holmes succeeds, Miss Morstan gets the money and Watson loses his chance. That kind of selfless choice hit me hard (especially after *The Big Sleep*, where I felt emotionally wrecked). By the end, of course, they end up together. Some people might find it too quick since the timeframe isn’t super long (I think it’s under a month and it’s clear they’re attracted from the start), but I found it sweet. Also, because Watson is the one telling it, it kind of reads like a husband looking back on the case that brought him his wife. That makes the “romanticizing” feel warmer instead of random. One more thing: Watson is definitely not a sexist in this book. At one point Holmes says you can’t trust a woman (even “the best” ones), and Watson is horrified by that. Not a high bar, but good job anyway. ## Climax: Boat chase + gunshots I don’t have some super deep analysis for this part. The climax is just flat-out fun. There’s a boat chase on the Thames, bad guys in a faster boat, good guys in a slightly faster boat, revolvers come out, people get shot. It was genuinely exciting and I almost don’t care if I can’t explain why it worked so well—it just did. If nothing else, the book is worth it for that scene. ## Denouement: Why so long? This is where I have to be a little negative. I’ve been reading crime/mystery stuff and now I basically know what a “denouement” is supposed to do: tie everything together quickly, reveal what happened, show how the killer was caught. Like Columbo or Poirot or any other “here’s how it all went down” moment. In *A Study in Scarlet*, I complained that the second half dragged and didn’t feel as satisfying. I think I get why now: that reveal went on forever. This time, the denouement is about twenty pages, and apparently that’s improvement. So yes, faster is good. But I still struggled with it. The villain’s motivation is pretty simple—Johnathan Small finds the Agra Treasure, gets screwed over by the rich guy, wants to kill him and get it back. I didn’t need a huge backstory to understand that. And then the backstory takes up a lot of the final chunk, with people from it showing up way late, when there are only a few pages left. It made me kind of zone out while reading, like “okay but what’s the point of all this?” Once the important characters came back, I snapped into it again and the ending moved smoothly after that. Still, the timing felt off. ## Ending thoughts Overall, I think *The Sign of Four* is way better than the first one. I especially liked Watson more, loved the sweet romance, and Sherlock is still my favorite. The villain also felt more memorable than the one from the first book, even though I complained about the backstory problem. The climax was basically action-movie energy. I just hope future books handle the wrap-up parts more efficiently. Thanks for reading! I love getting pushback, so please disagree with me as hard as you want. Also, I think I’m in the mood to go back to Agatha Christie with *The Mysterious Affair at Styles*. I’ll probably review that next. And I’ve been thinking about starting my own blog too. I love this community a lot, but I feel like the rest of the internet is kind of a mess. Not sure yet—just rambling.