A Study in Scarlet

A Study in Scarlet introduced the world to Dr John Watson and Sherlock Holmes. The story appeared in Beeton’s Christmas Annual for 1887 and is believed to be set in March 1881. It is the third in chronological order of the Holmes stories, following on from the Gloria Scott and the Musgrave Ritual which Holmes recounts to Watson at a later date. In A Study in Scarlet Watson has returned to England to recuperate, having being wounded at the Battle of Maiwand during the Second Afghan War. A meeting with a medical colleague leads to him being introduced to Holmes with whom he decides to share lodgings at 221B Baker Street. Holmes involves Watson in a case arising from the discovery of the body of Enoch Drebber of Cleveland Ohio which has been discovered at 3 Lauriston Gardens on the Brixton Road. Suspicion falls on Drebber’s Secretary Stangerson, and Lieutenant Charpentier, the son of Drebber’s landlady who had stopped Drebber’s unwanted advances to his sister. However, when Stangerson is also found murdered, while Charpentier is in police custody, Holmes and Watson find they are dealing with a resolute opponent with the origin of the two murders dating back twenty years and involving a mysterious religious American sect.