Whereas A Study in Scarlet had problems with pacing, The Sign of Four is slightly more balanced, although it's not without issues either. The problems lie mostly with the lack of suspense and an uninteresting mystery. India under the British rule is a fascinating era, but the treasure as a plot device was boring to say the least. The racism wasn't as bad as I initially thought, and because it was a part of the Western brain at that time, there's no point analyzing it here (although it is a fascinating thing to explore). The locked room aspect could have been explored even further, but the solution was very simple. Yet again, the recount of the events leading to the crime was superfluous.

Tonga was a painful cliché and a heap full of implausibility, but fortunately he didn't appear that often. Holmes seemed strangely passive, not to mention that he

Spoiler

failed to realize the boat might have been repainted

, which to me was unconvincing considering how sharp Holmes usually is. Watson was flat as usual, and he got to meet someone as flat as himself in the form of Mary Morstan. Their relationship is the same "you're pwetty, let's get mawwied" -thing that litters Victorian era literature, and Mary seemed to spend her time staring out of the window in a haze and dressed in one pretty gown after another. Wouldn't mind if we never saw her again.

I realize I may sound critical, but overall I did enjoy this as much as I did the first installment. They both have problems but still manage to be entertaining. Here we see for the first time how Holmes is shooting cocaine to "cure" his boredom (at that time cocaine was still used widely as a local anesthetic and recreationally in various forms, both demonstrated in the pilot of the new series The Knick, and which naturally led to hilarious and nutty advertisements), although it's not entirely presented as a good thing, since Watson tries to steer Holmes away from it. Maybe Holmes had read Freud's Über Coca: "You perceive an increase of self-control and possess more vitality and capacity for work." Holmes's habit makes him human instead of a completely virtuous person who catches evil criminals. Watson is the cheerleader, but Holmes is the meat and bones.

Still, I do expect the short stories to improve mystery-wise, since I don't see a point reading a crime story if the crime itself isn't interesting or puzzling. Interesting characters aren't enough if the actual crime-solving doesn't satisfy.