A Study in Scarlet

Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s A Study in Scarlet (1887) is a detective novel about a mysterious murder in a vacant house, one man’s lifelong hunt for justice, and the powers of deduction and reason. It marks the introduction of the famed detective character Sherlock Holmes and his sidekick John Watson, along with several other characters and locations that would become important to the 56 short stories and three other novels about Holmes that followed. The novel was originally serialized in Beeton’s Christmas Annual magazine in 1887, and then in novel form in 1888, but interest was muted until the eventual rise in popularity of the Sherlock Holmes series. Since then, A Study in Scarlet has been adapted for radio, television, and film.

The novel is broken up into two parts, each containing seven chapters. The first part takes place in London and details Holmes and Watson investigating the murders of two American men. The second part, set in Utah, explains how the men ended up in America and why they were killed. This second part of the text contains a harsh depiction of the Christian sect formerly known as Mormonism that, while containing some historical accuracy, was also informed by era-specific prejudice against members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.