The Sign of Four

Exam board: AQA
Level & Subject: GCSE English Literature
Next exam: June 2026
This edition of The Sign of Four is perfect for GCSE-level students: it comes complete with the novel, plus an introduction providing context, and a glossary explaining key terms.
'Moonlight was streaming into the room, and it was bright with a vague and shifty radiance. Looking straight at me and suspended, as it were, in the air, for all beneath was in shadow, there hung a face...'
A mysterious letter, a missing father, stolen jewels and a man found dead in a locked room. Private detective Sherlock Holmes and his faithful companion Dr Watson have their work cut out in a case which takes them through the suburbs of south London, back in time to the forts and swamps of colonial India, and climaxes in a dramatic chase along the river Thames.
Arthur Conan Doyle's 1890 novel is the famous detective's second case.

Sir Arthur Conan Doyle (1859-1930) was a Scottish writer and physician, most famous for his stories about the detective Sherlock Holmes and long-suffering sidekick Dr Watson. Conan Doyle was a prolific writer whose other works include fantasy and science fiction stories, plays, romances, poetry, non-fiction and historical novels.