A Study in Scarlet (Sherlock Holmes, #1)

A Study in Scarlet is one of the first mystery novels, written before the genre’s tropes were codified, and often setting the pattern for the many such stories to follow. It not only presents a case for the reader to solve alongside a capable detective, and explores the nature of deductive reasoning, which is how Holmes is able to solve cases nobody else can. After laying out the facts of the murders, the novel depicts Inspectors Gregson and Lestrade, and the newspapers struggling to make sense of them, while Holmes is reticently (though also arrogantly) confident that he has solved it. All parties interpret the case differently, highlighting the central role perspective plays in the act of interpretation.

Watson includes excerpts from three newspapers that all come to different conclusions about the perplexing details of the case, allowing Doyle to satirize the media of his day. The newspapers represent three different political perspectives, which means they all have different biases and agendas. The gossipy tabloid explores the lurid nature of the crime and casually runs through a variety of conspiracy theories, a conservative paper accuses the Liberal party of being morally permissive and thus somehow responsible, and a left-wing paper bemoans the idea that anti-socialist forces abroad may have forced the perpetrator to an act of desperation.