The window contained photographs of more or less undressed dancing girls; nondescript packages in wrappers like patent medicines; closed yellow paper envelopes, very flimsy, and marked two-and-six in heavy black figures; a few numbers of ancient French comic publications hung across a string as if to dry; a dingy blue china bowl, a casket of black wood, bottles of marking ink, and rubber stamps; a few books, with titles hinting at impropriety; a few apparently old copies of obscure newspapers...

The Sign of the Four (1890), also called The Sign of Four, is the second novel featuring Sherlock Holmes written by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. Doyle wrote four novels and 56 stories starring the fictional detective.

The story is set in 1888. The Sign of the Four has a complex plot involving service in East India Company, India, the Indian Rebellion of 1857, a stolen treasure, and a secret pact among four convicts ("the Four" of the title) and two corrupt prison guards. It presents the detective'...

The eighth book in the series about Special Detective Chau is about the investigation into three murders, in which Special Detective Chau soon turns out to be suspect number one, of at least one of the murders. The moment Chau is taken off the investigation, she makes a rigorous decision. This decision does not improve her position, but she is supported by hidden help from an unexpected source. Actually, it is that person who leads Chau to make the decision. An unlikely story comes to life, a...