Arthur Conan Doyle's The Sign of Four

Arthur Conan Doyle’s 1890 novel The Sign of Four has generally been read from post-colonial or epistemological perspectives, emphasizing either its engagement with the British Empire, or its implied positivist philosophy. This case study reads the story from a criminological perspective, focusing on Holmes’ forensic orientation, and on the tale’s Lombrosian depiction of criminal behaviour. It concludes by arguing that the story can also been read from the perspective of critical criminology, with the crimes of the powerful underlying its surface plotting.