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This volume, which has been freshly edited and typeset by human editors, not machine-scanned, contains the complete original text and corrects a number of errors introduced in the many various editions published over the years. Additional material included for Conan Doyle fans, new or old, are a biographical sketch of the author and a detailed bibliography of his work.

Set in 1888, the story opens with Holmes complaining to Watson about the boredom of a "commonplace" world in which nothing unusual ever happens anymore, when they are interrupted by the arrival of a visibly distressed young lady who relates a strange tale: once each year, she has received a valuable pearl from an unknown source. Having now received a message requesting that she meet her anonymous benefactor, she comes to consult with Holmes. Accompanying Miss Morstan to her appointment, Holmes and Watson are drawn into a complex plot involving the British East India Company, the Sepoy Mutiny of 1857, a murder, stolen treasure, and a secret pact between convicts.

But the most immediate problem for Holmes is to track down a mysterious killer and the missing treasure in an adventure which proves to be anything but "commonplace."

First published in the February 1890 issue of Lippincott's Monthly Magazine as The Sign of the Four in the London and Philadelphia editions, it was quickly re-published in several British periodicals that gave the title as The Sign of Four. First published in book form in October 1890 with the title The Sign of Four used in both the British and American editions, over the years various reprintings have used the two different forms of the title. The actual text in the novel uniformly uses "the Sign of the Four" with the exception of two instances near the end. We have chosen to use the original title for this edition, which more accurately reflects the content of the text.

Sir Arthur Conan Doyle (1859-1930) is known the world over as the creator of the famous consulting detective, Sherlock Holmes, but was a prolific writer who produced a large body of work ranging from non-fiction and full-length novels to a wide variety of short stories.

Doyle's first major success as a writer came with the debut of Sherlock Holmes in the 1887 publication of "A Study in Scarlet". Holmes was a popular sensation, and more stories followed. By 1891, Sherlock Holmes was enough to provide Doyle a living, but Doyle came to resent Holmes, who kept him from what he considered "more important" work. In 1893 he "killed" Holmes, as the detective and his archenemy, Professor Moriarty, plunged to their deaths at Reichenbach Falls in "The Final Problem". It was no mere publicity stunt. Doyle considered himself finished with Mr. Sherlock Holmes.

The public uproar in reaction to Holmes' "death" shocked Doyle, with even his own mother complaining, and as the clamor continued he was forced to bring the detective back in "The Hound of the Baskervilles", published, to a vast public sigh of relief, in 1901. Ironically, the character Doyle resented as a "distraction" from serious work would ultimately appear in fifty-six short stories and four novels, together with countless adaptations to films, television, cartoons, and modern pastiches by an assortment of authors.

Other Sherlock Holmes classics available from Apex Publications in large print editions are The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, The Hound of the Baskervilles, A Study in Scarlet, The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes, The Return of Sherlock Holmes, and His Last Bow.