Introduction by Anne Perry Includes newly commissioned endnotes In 1887, a young Arthur Conan Doyle published A Study in Scarlet, creating an international icon in the quick-witted sleuth Sherlock Holmes. In this very first Holmes mystery, the detective introduces himself to Dr. John H. Watson with the puzzling line ';You have been in Afghanistan, I perceive,' and so begins Watson's, and the world's, fascination with this enigmatic character. In A Study in Scarlet, Doyle presents two equally perplexing mysteries for Holmes to solve: one a murder that takes place in the shadowy outskirts of London, in a locked room where the haunting word Rache is written upon the wall, the other a kidnapping set in the American West. Picking up the ';scarlet thread of murder running through the colourless skein of life,' Holmes demonstrates his uncanny knack for finding the truth, tapping into powers of deduction that still captivate readers today.