A Study in Scarlet

Dr John Watson has returned from army service in Afghanistan with damaged health and too little money for London hotel bills. A possible flatmate offers a way out. Sherlock Holmes seems agreeable enough, though his enthusiasm for chemical experiments and his oddly selective knowledge make him difficult to place. Before Watson has a crime to investigate, he has a new companion to understand.

Their rooms at 221B Baker Street give this first Holmes novel much of its appeal. Watson tries making a list of what Holmes knows, only to find that expertise in one subject can sit beside complete indifference to another. Holmes, for his part, sees no reason to fill his mind with facts that will not help his work. Their disagreements have the easy fascination of watching two strangers discover what living together might involve.

Then a man is found dead in an empty house, with blood at the scene but no visible wound. Watson accompanies Holmes into an investigation in which a footprint or an apparently casual observation may matter more than a confident police theory. Conan Doyle makes the detective’s concentration exciting without losing the puzzled, sometimes sceptical voice beside him. The novel has a broader narrative reach than a single sequence of interviews and clues, but its most inviting company begins in those shared rooms. Watson wants explanations, and his willingness to ask for them brings you close to the particular satisfaction of watching Holmes attend to something everyone else has passed over.