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.