The Sign of Four

By: Arthur Conan Doyle

Narrated by: David Timson

The Sign of Four is the second story by Conan Doyle about the exploits of Sherlock Holmes.

From the moment Mary Morstan tells Holmes about the mysterious disappearance of her father and the yearly gift of a pearl from an unknown benefactor, Holmes and his companion Watson are involved in an exotic tale of stolen treasure, secret oaths and murder, culminating in a breath-taking chase down the Thames. Holmes is on top form, and Watson falls in love. David Timson won the Audiobook of the Year Award for his reading of this, the first Sherlock Holmes novel.

Download the accompanying reference guide.Public Domain (P)2003 Naxos Audiobooks

Cool story

Voice characteristics are wonderful and the personality development is also a key consideration in the story

I'm planning to listen to more Sherlock Holmes!

I purchased this 4.5 hour book during a recent Audible Daily Deal, and I'm quite pleased with my purchase! A typical Holmes mystery - "G" rated, as you would expect. A very comfortable listen. My first experience listening to David Timson. Fantastic narrator - I will look for him in the future. And Dr. Watson falls in love! Very nice read - I highly recommend it if you like cozy mysteries!

Poor purchase

Would you recommend this book to a friend? Why or why not?

No, do not care for A C Doyle's writing style. This was the first of his books I listened to, and will probably be the last.

What was most disappointing about Arthur Conan Doyle’s story?

The book was very "dry" and I just couldn't get into it. Just couldn't concentrate to follow the story.

What three words best describe David Timson’s performance?

Accent, emphasis, authoritarian

If this book were a movie would you go see it?

No, I can't get into TV shows based Holmes & Watson.. I tried the audio book and was not impressed.

Any additional comments?

I have over 500 audio books and this is only the second one that was a total waste for me. I purchase "sale" books to try new authors and will continue to do so, I'll hope for better results next time.

Charming mystery, as before

Another pleasant insight into Sherlock Holmes' insights. As engaging as A Study in Scarlet, The Sign of Four is a well narrated, captivating listen. Definitely worth my time.

Revisiting the 1890 classic

If you're unfamiliar with this story, you can't do better than to choose this virtuoso narration by David Timson. It's astounding, even for an actor whose narrations are consistently of the highest quality.

A lovely young lady comes to Holmes to help her solve a mystery: she has been receiving a pearl of great price each year from an anonymous donor.

You'll see Holmes at his best and worst, Watson at his most chilvalrous and romantic. An eccentric valetudinarian, a gang of criminals, foreign lands, violence, adventure, and a man with a most unusual sidekick all figure in this engaging tale.

Highly recommended to all who love Victorian classics and good mysteries!

Sherlock Holmes-his reputation precedes him

I am shamed to admit that although I am 36 years of age, I have previously only read one Sherlock Holmes story (The Hound of the Baskervilles). I have decided to remedy that. This was my first go. Obviously a classic for a reason, Sherlock Holmes is a pretty great character. A brilliant jerk. The mystery was good as well. I found it very enjoyable. Unfortunately, as I have only read 2 Sherlock stories, I can't give any expert comparative opinions. I did enjoy The Hound of the Baskervilles more than this one, but this story was still great. I did enjoy the narrator. Sometimes I find that narrators often miss the mark when performing the classics. They sound stuffy or pretentious. This narrator was pleasant to listen to. I'm off to a good start.

A Mixed Bag

This seemed to have been a week when I was destined to listen to unknown works by two authors I enjoy (See my review of Double Star by Robert Heinlein).

The narration of The Sign of Four was very good. He varied the characters voices so that you had a good image of each one. Discovering the meeting and romance of John Watson and Mary Marston was also enjoyable.

The book does fall down in middle, however, and never really recovers. The first half is classic Holmes and Watson and they quickly resolve the mystery. The second half is devoted to the culprit giving a detailed and (to my mind) tedious back story of the events that led up to the story's two murders.

As with Double Star, I bought this audio book as a daily deal but it wasn't nearly as good a bargain as that book. Given the low price, I felt reasonably satisfied with it. However, I wouldn't recommend purchasing it at full price or with a credit.

Yay

Loved it. Never a dull moment. Hope there are more in this series on Audible

Watson gets engaged? By jove!

This is still early Holmes, so Moriarty hasn't appeared yet, but we do have Inspector Lestrade, and the Baker Street Irregulars, and Holmes's infamous "Seven percent solution."

Sherlock Holmes is a series which I think is better done in the various modern reimaginings than going back to the original source material, which rereading as an older and more experienced adult, one realizes was very Victorian pulp fiction and frequently a bit more silly than I remembered from reading the entire collected Sherlock Holmes as a child.

That's not to say I don't still enjoy the stories, but whereas I thought Sherlock Holmes was cool as heck when I was a kid, and I can still appreciate all the tropes Sir Arthur Conan Doyle brought into the genre, Holmes is basically a morose, smug misanthrope who, by his own admission, takes cocaine and heroin to dull himself to the boredom and general unsatisfactoriness of the world, when he isn't engaged on a case. So we find him at the beginning of this, his second case, with Watson mustering himself to offer a tepid criticism of Holmes's drug habit, which Holmes breezily blows off until a case appears.

The Sign of the Four begins with a young lady in search of her father, who disappeared ten years ago. It turns out to be a story of betrayal and lost treasure, in this case a treasure secreted out of Raj India. There's a blowgun-wielding aboriginal tribesman described in delightfully racist British purple prose, and other things that will prick the PC sensibilities of the modern reader, but let's just accept that Holmes and Watson are men of their time (and in fairness, it's usually other people describing Indians and island tribesmen as inhuman savages).

Like the first Holmes story, A Study in Scarlet, the last part of this story is narrated by one of the secondary characters, describing the backstory, and having nothing to do with Holmes and Watson until they arrive on the scene years later.

The Sign of the Four ends with Watson engaged, which I actually did not remember from reading the books way back when. So, does he end up getting married, or does Doyle engineer some tragic demise for his perfect flower of Victorian womanhood? I guess I need to pick up the next story...

A fine follow-up

Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's follow-up foyer into Sherlock Holme's logic dominated world delivers much of what is introduced in the debut: strong characters, mystery, murder, all set against the backdrop of gloomy London. Unfortunately, it doesn't bring anything new to the franchise.

Holmes and Watson are entertaining in their banter and adventures, but there was a lack of freshness to the story that was present in "A Study In Scarlet." I found Watson's romance subplot to be overly maudlin and distracting from the better elements of the story. The story does offer a fine tour of London at an interesting age, and Conan Doyle's use of the city as a landscape is one of the novel's major strengths.

Timson does an excellent job with the narration and the audiobook is well-produced. Would not recommend as a starting-off point for the series, but definitely worth a listen for Sherlock Holmes fans.