A Study in Scarlet

A Study in Scarlet is the novel that introduced Sherlock Holmes and Dr. John Watson to the world, launching one of the most famous detective partnerships in literary history. When Watson returns to London after military service in Afghanistan, he shares rooms at 221B Baker Street with the strange, brilliant, and maddeningly precise consulting detective Sherlock Holmes. Their first case together begins with a body in an abandoned house, a word written in blood, and a mystery that only Holmes can unravel through observation, deduction, chemistry, and a mind unlike any Watson has ever encountered.

First published in 1887, A Study in Scarlet established many of the elements that would define the Holmes canon: the Baker Street rooms, Watson as narrator, the official police baffled by clues they cannot read, and Holmes's method of turning small details into devastating conclusions. It is also one of only four full-length Sherlock Holmes novels, making it essential for readers following the series from its beginning. This edition includes an introduction by Darrell Schweitzer, adding literary context to Conan Doyle's landmark detective novel.

This Wilder Publications edition is suited to readers of classic mystery fiction, detective stories, Victorian literature, Sherlock Holmes, crime fiction, and the origins of the modern fictional detective. A Study in Scarlet remains a foundational work of mystery fiction: the first meeting of Holmes and Watson, the first display of the method, and the first step in a literary career that would make Sherlock Holmes one of the most recognizable characters ever created.