The story is harrowing in its alternating hope and despair, although Holmes himself was later to complain that the book &#39;produces much the same effect as if you worked a love-story or an elopement into the fifth proposition of Euclid.&#39;

A tired and battle scarred surgeon returns to London after being wounded in the third Afghan war. After his money starts to run low, a chance encounter leads him to take a flat with an eccentric man at 221B Baker Street. Thus begins the famous crime-solving partnership of the Holmes and Watson duo.

A Study in Scarlet

By Arthur Conan Doyle