When a corpse is found in an abandoned London house with a single word scrawled in blood on the wall, the newly acquainted Dr. Watson gets his first glimpse of the extraordinary powers of observation and deduction belonging to his new flatmate, Sherlock Holmes. Arthur Conan Doyle's 1887 novel introduces the world's most famous detective and the loyal companion who would chronicle his cases - launching a partnership, and a genre, that has never gone out of fashion. Part locked-room mystery, part sweeping tale of betrayal and revenge stretching back to the American frontier, A Study in Scarlet remains the essential starting point for the Sherlock Holmes canon.