A Study in Scarlet

A Study in Scarlet, published in 1887, Arthur Conan Doyle's first Sherlock Holmes novel, introduces Dr. John Watson, a wounded army doctor who returns to London and takes lodgings with the eccentric consulting detective Sherlock Holmes at 221B Baker Street. When a man is found murdered in an empty house with the German word "RACHE" scrawled in blood on the wall, Scotland Yard is baffled and turns to Holmes. Through keen observation and deduction, Holmes unravels the case, which leads to a long flashback set years earlier in the American West involving a bitter personal vendetta tied to the early Mormon community in Utah. The story ends with the capture of the killer and the beginning of the famous partnership between Holmes and Watson.